Clerk wrong to close polling places

Submitted by Keith Dahlem
Posted 5/26/20

Dear Editor:

Reducing the number of polling places where county residents have had the ability to vote closer to where they live is a total disenfranchisement of their voter rights.

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Clerk wrong to close polling places

Posted

Dear Editor:

Reducing the number of polling places where county residents have had the ability to vote closer to where they live is a total disenfranchisement of their voter rights.

The residents and voters from Clark, Frannie, Garland, Ralston, Valley, Wapiti, Willwood, the North Fork, the South Fork and Yellowstone National Park and who voted locally have just been screwed by the Park County Clerk with enablement of the Wyoming Secretary of State.

I can see no rationale of having more voters crammed and forced into fewer places to vote in person on voting day a health benefit, when a voter already had the ability for early voting or absentee voting. If you want your vote to really count, one has to vote in person on election day to make sure that your candidate did not withdraw.

How many voting machines were initially ordered for Park County? Who was the liberal Democrat that said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”? Sound familiar?

This process seems to be very self-serving by the current county clerk and her employees in the election department. It is not a logistic benefit to the affected voters and definitely not a health safety benefit to the three polling places that are supposed to get the increased voters at those locations.

How many of these polling places that are scheduled to close forever have seen a recent increase in voters due to the expanded number of residents moving into most of those polling stations areas that are being affected? I would venture to say all of them.

In the reporting of results, are Wapiti, 16-1, Clark, Frannie, Ralston and the other precincts going to have the vote totals listed separately, or are we going to be ending up just like our separate school districts? The closing of these polling stations would be as phony as a $3 bill!

This process stinks; it does not pass the smell test.

Is it going to save me money, reduce my taxes, going to benefit me as a Park County voter? I think not! Clerk Colleen Renner said the total number of election judges needed will remain the same or be only slightly less despite the reduction in facilities. So what is the problem?

I do not appreciate being storied and scammed, I feel the affected voters have just been had. One thing for sure, I will never vote for Colleen Renner or any one of those in the clerk’s office that have had a part in this operation.

Keith Dahlem

North Fork/Cody

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