Polling Places Could Change in Fall

The town faces an election day dilemma that resembles a math problem: How do you fit as many as 9,000 cars in a 350-spot parking lot over 13 hours?

The answer, Town Clerk Maureen Clark and Police Chief Normand A. Crepeau Jr. told selectmen tonight, is: You can’t, at least not without facing potential safety and traffic problems.

They recommended instead that voting for the Sept. 6 primary and Nov. 6 presidential elections be held in two locations: The current and the either the current or new .

Based on this plan, precincts 1, 2 and 3 would vote at Grafton High School, while precincts 4 and 5 would go to Grafton Elementary School, which will be known this fall as Millbury Street School.

The town’s number of precincts has increased from three to five based on the most recent census numbers.

About 9,000 Grafton voters, or 80 percent of the town’s registered voters, cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election, Clark said. With the increase in town population, she estimated that even more voters could turn out this November.

All voters cast ballots at one location, Grafton High School, at the November 2008 election. The large turnout caused significant traffic back-ups and some tension between students who have assigned parking spaces and the voters who used those spots, Crepeau and Clark said.

This problem about student parking spaces would be alleviated because school Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings cancelled school for students on election day.

But Crepeau noted that Grafton High School logistics have become more complicated because the only entrance and exit is located on Providence Road. During the last presidential election, which was held before construction began for the new high school and the layout subsequently changed, there were three ways into the high school.

Selectmen agreed to consider the change and vote on the issue at an upcoming meeting.

One potential problem, selectman John Dowling said, is whether people know what precinct they live in and where they need to vote. This is not an issue now because all voters cast ballots at Grafton Elementary School.

“The idea is fine, but we need to have a heck of a publicity effort’’ to inform people of their precincts, which might have changed since the previous election, selectman John Carlson said.

If selectmen approve these changes, they will go into effect with the September primary election, to be held Sept. 6. School will be in session that day, but Clark estimates a significantly smaller turnout that day than in the November election.