By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
With a 50% increase in registered voters over the past 10 years, Canadian County is adding 10 voting precincts.
New polling places – mostly in eastern Canadian County – will be open for the June 28 primary elections.
“We’ve added an additional 10 precincts to what we had,” Canadian County Election Board Secretary Wanda Armold said. “We now have 60 precincts.”
As of Feb. 15, Canadian County totaled 90,206 registered voters – up from about 60,000 in 2012. And the numbers keep rising.
Here is the breakdown by political party:
- Republican – 54,437
- Democrat – 19,332
- Independent – 15,532
- Libertarian – 905
Five new precincts will be in the Yukon/Mustang area, with two in Surrey Hills, two in El Reno, and one in Piedmont.
“Along the east county line, going from Piedmont to Mustang, there are seven precincts and one ‘sub’ that did not exist before,” Armold said.
Canadian County will now have five “sub” precincts with less than 500 registered voters and one precinct with 0 voters.
The Canadian County Election Board approved new precinct lines on Dec. 15, 2021, but those lines won’t become official until after April 5th school board and municipal elections.
“Sometime between April 5 and the first day of county and state (candidate) filings on April 13, my computer program should be at a point we can ‘flip a switch’ where we go to the new program where everybody is assigned to their new precinct, on the right street, to the right municipality, school, and so forth,” Armold explained.
“We will have to mail out 90,000 voter ID cards in May, because almost everybody in the county has changed something – either a Congressional, County Commissioner or House (district).”
Those cards will inform Canadian County residents where to vote starting with June’s elections.
To reduce long lines during an election with heavy voter turnout, Canadian County Election Board officials strive to have no more than 2,000 registered voters at any polling place.
In recent years, several precincts saw voter numbers far exceed that amount.
MORE BUILDING, WORKERS NEEDED
Canadian County election personnel still must identify buildings to house the 10 new precincts. That task will be done in coming weeks.
Most of the 50 existing precincts are inside churches, with a few others at public buildings, a hotel and car dealership.
“Churches always seem to meet the federal guidelines for handicapped-accessibility,” Armold said.
“There are several churches along the east county line that we might be able to use. I just haven’t gone to talk to them to ask if we can use their buildings as polling places.”
Polling places should be within that precinct’s boundaries.
The Canadian County Election Board also will need to hire election day personnel for the new polling sites. These part-time workers must be trained.
“We’ll be ‘digging in again’ trying to find people to work,” Armold said. “We have to have three workers at every polling place – an inspector, judge and clerk. So that’s 30 people.
“If it’s a large precinct with, say, 2,000 voters, then we try to have extra people to help.”
There must be an equal number of Republicans and Democrats working at each precinct.
Libertarians and Independents also serve as precinct workers.
“You can work in a precinct you don’t reside in; there was a time when that was not allowed,” Armold said.
Canadian County’s population grew by 33.6% – from 115,541 to 154,405 – between 2010 and 2020, according to U.S. Census data.
Much of this increase has come around Yukon, Mustang and Piedmont – with most inside Oklahoma City limits.
