Election Commission Closes Brotherton Voting Precinct

Putnam County has one less voting precinct after election commissioners closed the Brotherton polling location Wednesday.

The decision is mostly due to a low voter turnout and the poor condition of the Brotherton Community Center. Commissioner Linda Daniel noted that the precinct could reopen in the future.

“If they could get that center up and running, and if the people took an interest in getting that going, we would be happy to reopen it,” Daniel said. “These old community centers have given us problems in the past and this community center is the problem.”

Brotherton residents will be forced to travel about six miles to vote at the Algood Outside precinct. Putnam County Election Administrator Debbie Steidl said her office will be notifying residents about the change.

“We will have to publish a notice of the consolidation in the paper and mail a new card to each active voter,” Steidl said. “We will also mail the change of consolidation to the comptroller and election office.”

The commission also voted Wednesday to not consolidate the Buffalo Valley precinct with Boma.

“We have another one or two locations that we want to look at in the next couple of meetings,” Chairman Phil Adams said. “We may be looking to determine whether it’s worth closing to best serve the tax dollars because of low turnout.”

The next election commission meeting will be May 15th.