BENTONVILLE —Benton County election officials have selected 14 polling places for the Sept. 17 Bentonville school election.
The Election Commission chose to add five precincts to the nine requested by the School District. Election officials said they hope to avoid confusion by keeping the normal polling places open for as many voters as possible.
At A Glance
Polling Places
The Benton County Election Commission has selected 14 polling places for voters in the Sept. 17 Bentonville school election. All polling places are open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on election day. The precincts and polling places are:
Precincts*Polling Place
• 18, 19: Cave Springs Community Building, 117 S. Main St.
• 21, 23, 25: St. Bernard Catholic Church Parish Hall, 1 St. Bernard Lane, Bella Vista
• 20,22: Centerton Fire House, 900 W. Centerton Blvd.
• 26: Bella Vista First United Methodist Church, 20 Boyce Drive
• 27: Bella Vista Christian Church, 8889 W. McNelly Road
• 28: Bella Vista Baptist Church, 50 E. Lancashire Drive
• 29: St. Theodore’s Episcopal Church, 1001 Kingsland Road, Bella Vista
• 30, 31, 33: Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, 103 Veterans Way, Bella Vista
• 32: Bentonville First Presbyterian Church, 901 S.E. J St.
• 34: Bentonville Church of Christ, 811 N. Walton Blvd.
• 36: First Assembly of God Church, 2202 S. Walton Blvd., Bentonville
• 37: Bentonville Parks and Recreation Department, 305 S.W. A St.
• 38, 41, 47: Hope Church of Northwest Arkansas, 1700 Moberly Lane, Bentonville
• 43: Rogers First Church of the Nazarene, 4911 W. Pleasant Grove Road
Source: Benton County Election Commission
“We would have had thousands of voters looking for their polling places,” Robbyn Tumey, commission member, said Wednesday.
Bentonville's School District will ask voters to approve a 2.9-mill tax increase at the Sept. 17 election. The tax, if approved, would raise $74.7 million for a second high school on Gamble Road in Centerton. Voters will decide the millage and elect one School Board member for Zone 6.
The commission discussed the list of polling places presented by the School District and decided to add another five locations, Tumey said.
“We’re pretty pleased with the result,” she said.
Mary Ley, communications director for the School District, said officials had no objections to the larger number of polling places.
“Anything to make it easier for our voters, we’re happy with,” Ley said. “We had gone with what had been used before.”
There had been some problems with voters being confused about their polling place in the last special school election when polling places had to be changed because of scheduling conflicts, Ley said. The commission has worked well with school officials in setting up the Sept. 17 school election, Ley said.
“We’re all trying to make it as easy as possible,” Ley said. “We want a lot of people to vote.”
Centerton Mayor Bill Edwards said he’s optimistic about the millage proposal. He is planning a series of forums to educate voters about the proposal and get out the vote.
“It’s needed, that’s for sure,” Edwards said.
Kim Dennison, election coordinator, said the commission has reduced staff at some of the polling places in a cost-saving measure. Typically there are five poll workers at a site, Dennison said, but with the traditionally low turnout of school elections the commission decided to reduce that to three at some of the precincts with fewer registered voters. The county pays poll workers $100 for working on election day, Dennison said.