(Spirit Lake)– Dickinson county voters will notice some big changes when they head to the polls November 5th to vote in school and city elections. For starters, Jordan Moyer, Elections Clerk at the Dickinson County Auditor’s Office, says a number of polling sites in the county will be moved to new locations…
“A lot of it has to do with finding the parking accessibility. With changing precincts five and 11 to be combined, which is Arnolds Park and Okoboji, Okoboji City Hall has a small area and we know that people have had concerns with parking there and also with Arnolds Park, it just would be nice to have a centralized location for both of those.”
Moyer says polling sites and precincts will likely change again once the new census comes out.
Moyer adds this marks the first time city and school elections have been combined. She says that was mandated statewide by the Secretary of State…
“The school election would normally be held in September and the city election would be held in November, but this year we are combining those for the very first time. And they actually changed that, our Secretary of State’s office, they decided that we are going to go off of our precinct locations rather than your city or school location. So whatever precinct you would vote in for the primary or the general election is where you’re going to go for your voting precinct location.”
Moyer says cost was one of the key factors behind combining the two elections…
“It’s, you know, two separate big elections. If you have heated races, you know, you’ve got all those people coming out for one election and then you’ve got people coming out for the city election when you also have, if you have heated races on those, which we do.”
Absentee voting for the November 5th city and school elections runs October 7th through November 4th. Moyer adds those planning to vote on Election Day should NOT go to the Auditor’s Office.
You can find a complete list of polling site changes by clicking here AND here.
