Officials: Single Polling Place at MHS the Best Decision

It was Merrimack's first run at a single polling place since in about a decade and there are some kinks to work out, but despite a small wave of complaints about traffic from people who got stuck in tie-ups during the busiest hours in the morning and evening, election officials said this is the best way right now to conduct elections in town.

A contingent of Merrimack Patch fans on Facebook have been heavy on the criticism of vehicular traffic flow and parking issues, especially early in the morning and just after work. Town Moderator Lynn Christensen said despite the complaints on social media, which she'd been monitoring throughout the day, she hadn't heard as much of it at the actual polls.

State Rep. Candidates Lenette Peterson, Kim Kojak and Jo Ann Rotast said people had talked to them about traffic and parking, but complimented the process inside the school.

“It's been good,” Christensen said. “If it hadn't been for three accidents on the highway tonight, we wouldn't have had as much of a traffic issue this evening.”

Police Chief Mark Doyle said the accidents dumped extra traffic into Merrimack during a period of time that is always extremely difficult on Daniel Webster Highway.

State Police later reported seven accidents during the evening commute in Nashua and Manchester that caused some major traffic tie-ups between 4:41 and 6:41 p.m.

Christensen said it was very busy when the polls opened at 7 a.m., and parking was full, but despite the very long lines, inside the polls they put through 3,000 voters in the first two hours.

“If we were still at James Mastricola Upper Elementary School, this would have been a lot worse,” Christensen said.

Also worse, she said, would have been if voting had been conducted at all three of the town's past polling places. There would have been significant traffic problems in three places and there would have been lengthy back-ups inside the smaller locations that can no longer handle the voting population, Christensen said.

Up until January, there were three polling locations in town. They were cut to two following the Presidential Primary when the Town Council voted, at Christensen's advice, to close the polling location at St. James United Methodist Church. Christensen said at the time that significant safety concerns regarding traffic on Daniel Webster Highway, lack of handicap access and inadequate space inside put that location in violation of state election laws.

Following the April Town meeting, Christensen again approached the Town Council to close the St. John Neumann location. Christensen said St. John Neumann was also outgrowing it's space and in order to keep that location open and compliant with election laws, she would have had to cut the voter checklist there by about 3,000 voters, moving them to JMUES. That would have resulted in 16,000 of the town's registered 18,000 voters at JMUES.

While technically large enough to handle that number Christensen said there would have been bigger traffic issues than having everyone come to the high school and there would have been less than half the parking at the High School.

In September, the School Board voted to which has more parking than anywhere the town has access to. Though the complaints came in about the backups on O'Gara Drive and McElwain Street, Christensen said those streets were essential for queuing cars. Without that, had they had 18,000 voters going to JMUES and the traffic situation would have made Baboosic Lake Road, Daniel Webster Highway and surrounding roads much more difficult, she said.

Christensen said voting number are always heaviest at a presidential contest, and people quickly forget how difficult traffic is during close national election. Tuesday turned out record numbers at polls across America and even President Obama addressed needing to fix the long lines that occurred all around America on Tuesday, during his re-election speech early Wednesday morning.

Town Councilor Tom Koenig echoed Christensen's sentiments about traffic and lines at Merrimack High School.

“We made the only good decision we could make given the circumstances,” Koenig said of the Council's decision to go with one polling location.

Other locations were bandied about, but similar concerns of size, traffic and parking hamper those locations.

There is no where else in town that would have more parking and a big enough space to vote than the high school, Koenig said.

“This is a very large turnout and we knew it would be a very large turnout,” Koenig said, adding that things moved very efficiently inside throughout the day.

Voters through the early to mid-afternoon and in the last hour of voting had few complaints. Traffic was slow but moving and lines were long but moved quickly. One man, who declined to give his name, said he registered to vote around 6:30 p.m. and it only took about 15 minutes to move through the school with about 50 people ahead of him in line to register. He said traffic getting in was the issue, but wouldn't elaborate.

With him, Beth Guimond said it was an easy process inside.

“I was already registered and it went really smooth,” Guimond said.

Tim Francis, 33, of Merrimack, said he came in an out of the polls no problem and getting from his house to the polls around 6:30 was not a problem. Getting home from work, “traffic was difficult,” Francis said.

One couple walking into the polls around 6:30 p.m. said this was their third attempt at voting in Merrimack on Tuesday. Their persistence finally paid off toward the end of the night. They declined to be interviewed.

Town Councilor Bill Boyd said he'd heard the complaints about traffic through the day, and as a town official, he's listening. But he also agreed with Christensen and Koenig that this is the best option that the they've been able to come up with.

“Yes, we had logistical issues with traffic,” Boyd said. “We want this experience to be positive for everybody, but we had a decision we had to make. Even if we had it at Mastricola we still would have had these traffic and parking issues. We'll make it better.”