An open letter to Athens Mayor Steve Patterson and Service Safety Director Andy Stone:
I urge you to consider opening two lanes on West Union Street on Tuesday, Nov. 5, for Election Day. I work the polls at Ohio Means Jobs and it will be ridiculous for voters to manage ingress and egress to cast their ballots with only one lane of West Union operational. We handle three local precincts at that location and often we have folks who have trouble finding our location under good conditions. It is always a challenge as parking is in the back of the building. Early voting in other states has already proven to be one of the largest ever and there is no reason to think our attendance won’t be heavy, that is, if they can reasonably access their location.
I travel to businesses on the West side and often forget I must drive around to Rt. 682. I can only imagine some of our voters who don’t spend time in that area, or don’t keep up with the local construction, easily accessing the building. If the fair board can convince construction crews to open two lanes for one week of the Athens County Fair, that event pales in comparison to making it easier for ONE DAY to allow voters to come to the polls. I do not want voters to give up and go home. West Union construction has been impossible for all businesses in that area. Let’s not make it impossible for voters as well.
I have also become aware that access between the Court House and Board of Elections will no longer be open to voters, but they will be required to create a line out the front door of the building and down Court Street. We did this years ago and it was always a mess because of student traffic. This is not the best voter safety situation particularly in these rather uncertain partisan times. Voting, our number ONE freedom, should be safe, accessible and easy for ALL citizens to perform.
One more item of importance is the need to close (for only 1½ hours after close of polls) both lanes of S. Court Street in front of the Board of Elections to allow all poll workers to SAFELY return all ballots to the main location. This has always been a dangerous activity on Court on that night. Please give your consideration to this as it’s far more important than most of the eating and music celebration closures.
I await your response and sincerely hope you are able to make government work for the people. Thank you.
Milena Miller
Athens, Ohio
