Hey, South Toe Precinct voters. You all got cards a couple of months ago letting you know that our polling place is being moved from South Toe Elementary to Browns Creek Baptist Church.
This is to let you know that we were supposed to be using the basement of the church, but it was damaged in the flood, so we will be voting in a large tent that’s sitting at the edge of the parking lot. It has power, a floor, heat and there are port-a-johns and handwashing stations outside.
A number of people have asked me why the polling place was moved. The answer is simple. Holding elections in schools is a conflict with the school schedule and activities. For general elections all the county schools are closed so that a few of them can be used as polling places. During primaries, the schools stay open, but the parts that are used for the election can’t be used for school that day, and it means a lot of people and vehicles are coming in and out of the parking lot and the building while school is not in session.
Both the Board of Education and the Board of Elections have been working for years to move the polling places out of the schools. South Toe was one of only two that were still using a school for the elections. My assumption is that for the 2026 election we will be using the church basement, but this year we will be in this tent provided by the State Board of Elections.