As many as 85,000 registered voters are about to receive mail from the board of elections; informing them their polling place has been eliminated.
Precinct consolidations are Step One of a process the Board of Elections leadership figures will eventually save about $2 million by streamlining voting operations.
Board spokesman Mike West says the new plan saves money immediately.
MIKE WEST: "If you have fewer precincts, then you have a need for fewer poll workers and all of the incidentals that go along with that."
The city of Parma alone is expected to save $77 thousand next month, just by operating fewer polling places. Initial changes are being made to 29 cities and towns, but before fall more than 300 voting precincts will have been eliminated, leaving about 11-hundred. the re-drawn precincts work out to about one precinct for every one thousand voters.
A Cuyahoga County Democratic Party official who asked not to be recorded said the party has no concerns that voters would be confused or disenfranchised by the changes.
Proof that precinct consolidations save money comes from the `Summit County' Board of Elections. Precinct reductions were made there in 2002, stripping away 150 polling sites. Deputy Director Bryan Williams says that has saved Summit County $700,000.
West says another indicator fewer precincts are needed comes from the 2008 Presidential election.
MIKE WEST: "In the November election about a third of our voters chose to vote by mail, and we see this trend continuing."
