School Polling Places: A Safety Risk?

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) recently spotlighted a legislative trend that possibly stems from the Sandy Hook tragedy: bills regulating the use of schools as polling places.  In 2013, bills have proposed the following:

• prohibiting schools from being used as polling places (Indiana HB 1244, Virginia HB 2204),

• allowing a school to be used as a polling place only if the school’s governing body adopts such a policy (Indiana HB 1156),

• permitting school closure on Election Day (New York AB 2036, 662), and

• prohibiting high-level sex offenders from voting at schools, but allowing them an absentee ballot (New York AB 3037).

New Jersey’s concern pre-dates Sandy Hook: a 2012 proposed bill required schools serving as polling places to have a written security plan (SB 997).  Currently, Connecticut law does not prohibit the use of schools as polling places, nor does it require public schools to adopt security plans related to potential Election Day safety threats.

NCSL notes that since school-based precincts are prevalent in many states, the impact of such legislation, if passed, could be significant.  Schools provide taxpayers a free space for elections.  A ban on their use would require local election officials to dedicate considerable time and money to find suitable replacement locations.  Instituting new polling places town- or city-wide could result in vast confusion.

At the very least, it is worth considering how school security plans may be compromised when groups of citizens enter school grounds to exercise their voting rights and fulfill their civic duty.  Many districts and state legislators are scrambling to fortify school security in the post-Sandy Hook world, but districts that fail to consider this public event when designing their security plans might be unknowingly leaving a gaping vulnerability exposed.