GLYNN COUNTY, GA. ā If you live in Glynn County, now is a good time to double-check your designated voting precinct.
Public schools will no longer serve as polling places in Glynn County.
The Glynn County Director of Elections said the countyās goal is to improve overall safety and security.
āThatās not good. People need to go wherever they can to vote,ā voter Sue Glazer said. āSome people can go there, some people canāt, but why are they doing that? Thatās wrong, thatās just wrong.ā
Hal Glazer disagreed and believed schools and politics should be separate.
āI donāt think a school is a place for anything like that,ā Hal Glazer said. āWe have enough problems right now with the schools, we donāt need to add other people coming in. If youāre going to vote, youāre going to find a place to vote.ā
Director of Elections Christopher Channell explained why theyāre making the change.
āWell back in 2017 we had six schools with polling locations,ā Channell said. āItās been a goal of ours since then to try to remove all of our polling locations out of the schools primarily for the safety and security of the schools and the students themselves.ā
Excessive traffic at public schools is also a safety concern. Since the schools are open on Election Day, school resource officers must split their responsibilities of protecting the students and managing crowds.
āWe have hundreds to thousands of individuals that will be coming to a school on a normal Election Day,ā Channell said. āWe just want to take that stress off the school system and students.ā
In total, Glynn County has 19 voting precincts.
This includes three public schools, Golden Isles College & Career Academy, Sterling Elementary, and C. B. Greer Elementary.
Channell said the board of elections is working on a lease agreement to add four new polling places and voters will be notified as soon as they are available.
The polling changes will go into effect by Georgiaās presidential primary election in 2024.