GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The City of Green Bay’s new ad hoc elections committee has asked to use the city’s four high schools for the upcoming elections in August and November.
According to the Green Bay Area Public School District’s school board agenda for Monday June 15th, board members will discuss the city’s request. The city is expected to make its case for the request at the meeting.
The committee wrote a letter to the district on Tuesday, saying it has been in communication with the city’s current 31 polling locations, but “already many of them have told us they are no longer available to us for the upcoming elections” on August 11th and November 3rd.
The letter says the decision on whether the schools are available “needs to happen immediately, in order for us to meet election requirements.” The letter goes on to say, “we understand that this would cause disruption to preparations for the school year and school schedule, which is why we’d like to make our case before the entire board.”
The city council decided to form an elections committee after voters experienced in-person waits of more than four hours to vote in the April 7th spring election.
Long lines were experienced throughout the day after the city decided to scale down its 31 polling locations to two, at Green Bay East and West High Schools. The city made the decision after most poll workers decided not to work the election due to coronavirus concerns and the city’s desire to try to maintain social distancing at poll locations.
In its letter to the school board, the elections committee writes, “these locations worked very well to maintain social distancing for voters and poll workers alike.”
