Four of Lansing’s polling places for the upcoming August primary election will be closed.
Voters in precincts 9, 12, 36 and 38 across the city's southern and downtown neighborhoods who want to cast their ballot in-person will have to go somewhere else.
Though the area represents 11,000 voters, the closures will only affect a few hundred voters since many people in those communities will cast absentee ballots. The ballot will include primaries for Lansing’s Ward 1 City Council seat and two At-Large seats on the governing body.
Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope says his office is in the process of securing permanent polling places for future elections.
“A couple of locations that are under construction, so we need to move the folks for those locations. And then we also have a couple of places that just really didn't work out for us that we had tried for the last couple of years,” he said.
Swope says one of the locations, Willow High School, is scheduled to be torn down as part of school mergers announced last December.
Impacted voters have been notified.
“We will be putting signs out. We have mailed a postcard to every registered voter that's impacted as well. So, they've gotten a postcard … we've sent them an email, and then we will be putting signs up at the closed locations”
The affected precincts and their new locations are:
- Precincts 9 and 12: Board of Water and Light building on Haco Drive and Lyons School locations will move to Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Mt. Hope Avenue
- Precinct 36: Lansing School District administration building location will move to Bread House Church South Washington Avenue
- Precinct 38: Willow School location will move to Neighborhood Empowerment Center on Maple Road