It is absolutely nuts that the city uses the schools for its polling places. It causes an adjustment to the normal routine. This year the 1st day of school aligned with the primary. The principal placed a reverse 911 asking if parents could avoid driving their children that day. The kids are overloaded day one with all of the supplies they've been asked to purchase for the year, not to mention the first day is a big deal for most families. I am 100% in favor of this change... Bravo!

I agree with Gregory that having school start on the day of the primary was ill planned by the School Department. Unfortunately, I don't know where in Woburn we could have a central polling place. Due to Woburn's size, we would need a few polling places.

I wish I could be present at the meetings for this, but unfortunately I cannot. I like the idea of reducing the number of polling places, but I am not sure that one is the way to go, right now there are 14 polling places, 2 per ward. Reducing that number down to 1 is a bit much in my personal never to be humble opinion. However, I do think a reduction is in order. Why not go from 14 to 4 or 5? That would greatly reduce the cost to the city and it would still keep the polling places quick and easy to access.

As for having them in the schools, I am not overly wild about it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it leaves a school a bit more vulnerable than it should be, disrupts the schools operations, and it means that there will be additional, unsupervised, adults in and around the schools, both those voting and those holding signs. Why not try to use other public buildings, such as the fire houses, the City Hall, or other public buildings in and around the city. I am quite sure that many of the clubs, such as the Elks, Masons, Moose, etc. would open their buildings up as polling places. Heck, I bet even some of the retail locations would gladly do it for a small tax break. Utilize other locations and centralize some of the polling places. Just don't go to one, that would mean long lines and serious wait times.

Frank Kautz
Ward 1, Precinct 1

I agree with not using the schools for safety reasons. It is nice to have voting in your neighborhood but I think most people will agree that it good endanger the children in the school allowing people coming in and out all day.

I think that putting all the voting in one place would be too hard for a lot of the senior as well as all the working families. I think it would be better to use the Senior Center where we voted previously to the Altavsta School ward 6 and also the voters from the Wyman area. Maybe 2 or 3 sites would work better to go to than one I honestly believe we will lose voters because of the difficulty in getting to the Joyce.
I think we will have people discouraged from voting if they have to go to the Joyce.
Voice your thoughts tonight at the meeting or call City Hall and let them know your thoughts. Once things pass its too late to change.

I picture long lines that would certainly discourage me from voting.

Long lines will lead to less people wanting to vote. Complacency is freedom's enemy. and freedom means getting out to vote. Reduce the number of polling places to maybe 4-5, Put them in places that everyone can get to. That will work fine. Has something happened in the past at a school I don't know about? If not. Take your time and look at it carefully, Seniors and people who vote on the fly (lunch hour etc,) need convenience. Keep that in mind. In ward 6 I would say we could vote at the new parish rec center,,, but THAT will never be built. Mike Raymond sold out the entire Ward over that.

Exactly what I'd like to know too, Earnhardt. Have we had incidents of school children being endangered by voters? I can think of a multitude of other threats to school children's safety that they encounter daily, instead of just once per year. For instance, most of our elementary schools are on busy, high speed roads. Also, parents in idling cars do daily damage to the air quality their sons and daughters are breathing during drop off and pick up. How big a safety threat is it really that children encounter 10 - 30% of their own neighbors at school on election day?

Does voting cause disruption and inconvenience? In some schools, yes. In others, no. Especially where there's a gymnasium used instead of a cafeteria. Missing one gym class per year hardly counts as disruption in those schools.

Woburn has some other polling place alternatives: the Senior Center, Spence Farm, the Thompson library. None of these would incur rental charges. Surely we can find some alternatives to the schools that are most negatively impacted.

Having one location will only reduce the number of educated, tax paying "voters" in that these voters tend to work and/or have families; Both of which allow for little to no time in the day to wait in a long line to vote. The majority of "voters" with a (one location, long line system) will be those who have lots of "time" on their hands and/or are voters dependent on tax funded programs and the officials that maintain and expand them.

I just came from the public hearing. The town is dead set on eliminating neighborhood polling stations. Since we won't be able to vote in our wards, what difference does it make where they decide to have their single consolidated one?

We've used public buildings since the dawn of the Republic. If safety is a concern; I'm not sure why it is we have security that cannot maintain a separation point, monitor cameras and all that stuff in the first place if it can't be reliable, then by all means take the day off from school. There have been more shallow reasons for doing this so one day a year isn't too much to ask in compromise.

Be certain of this, the State Primary date should remain the first week of Sept and it is the school start date that should be shifted for the Monday following Labor Day. We'd eliminate a paid holiday. To make up for this, the spring break should be eliminated. Face up to it folks, the school year is for the students, not the teachers and that's all there is too it.

I think one voting place is the way to go, it was done at the High School for the New High School. I am sure transportation will be provided for the Seniors, thru the city.
Also, driving to the Joyce is not as long as driving to the Woburn or Burlington Malls.

Mary Packard