School Board Invites Registrars Up to Talk Voting Poll Changes

Thanking local election officials for their thorough response and suggestions for polling site changes at city schools, the Peabody School Committee is asking to have a chat face-to-face with the Board of Registrars to try and resolve some safety concerns.

"I'd like to have them come and sit with us and answer our questions. I think it would be much more productive," said committee member Brandi Carpenter Tuesday night.

Her colleagues then agreed to invite the registrars up Oct. 22 (6 p.m.) prior to the committee's regular session that night.

"I think this is a good solution to talk over all the issues," added committee member Beverley Griffin Dunne.

Carpenter is leading the effort to try and take polling sites out of the city's schools and instead move them to supermarkets, churches and other neighborhood places.

The school board, with the exception of Dunne, supports Carpenter on this front, citing a variety of safety concerns for students and disruption to the school day.

The registrars said it wasn't practical to do as Carpenter and others called for, however, for several reasons, which they outlined in their recent letter. They also clearly stated they would not support placing polls at any for-profit business.

Instead, the registrars offered to move a handful of polls to nearby churches or temples (that's dependent on those houses of worship being willing to host voters), consider stepping up police presence at the schools on election days and/or just canceling classes for September primaries.

Ironically, both Temple Beth Shalom and West Congregational Church -- two alternative sites mentioned -- run their own preschool programs during the school year and would seem to pose the same safety concerns raised by parents, staff and school officials.

Carpenter added Tuesday night that she found a recent Salem News editorial on the issue to be "highly insulting." She said the piece insinuated school board members were interfering with Peabody citizens' ability to vote and participate in the democratic process.

"We are not barring anyone from voting... We are trying to promote a safe environment," Carpenter said.