Linn auditor aiming to remove polls from schools

CEDAR RAPIDS - The 2010 midterm elections served as a kind of wake-up call for Linn County Auditor Joel Miller.

“The last thing I want as the commissioner of elections is to have something bad happen on Election Day,” he said.

Miller said he's received several emails from parents worried about using schools as polling places. He decided to take the recent post-census redistricting as an opportunity to find places that kept students out of the voting process.

“Where we can get out of schools, that's what we're going to do for that security issue,” he said.

In Cedar Rapids, Taft Middle School, Metro High School and 11 elementary schools are no longer serving as voting locations, beginning with next week's referendum on extending the local-option sales tax.

Taft Principal Gary Hatfield said he's somewhat neutral on schools as polling places. He said the PTA used Election Day to raise money with a bake sale, and its status as a voting site also gave the public a look inside the building.

However, he does acknowledge the safety concerns.

“Parents want to make sure schools are safe,” Hatfield said. “It is true, on these days, people come in the building that typically aren't here.”

Miller said it's up to the schools to decide where the voters will be while they're inside the building, and Hatfield said many schools take security measures on Election Day. For example, Taft voters, who were always kept to the front of the building, had to walk past the attendance office before going directly into the auditorium to vote.

“We always review that before election to make sure we have all of our bases covered and make sure kids are secure and everyone is taken care of,” Hatfield said.

Miller said he hasn't heard of schools having security problems on Election Day, but it's still better to be proactive.

“That's what we're after - just trying to get ahead of it instead of behind it,” he said.

Several high schools are still being used as 

polling places for the upcoming election.