Whitfield elections board moves Eastside polling place, proposes combining six others

Published 8:30 am Saturday, July 19, 2025

The Whitfield County Board of Elections and Registrars is looking at changes to voting precincts that officials say would improve handicapped accessibility required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The Board unanimously agreed Friday to advertise and hold a public hearing on plans to consolidate Precinct 1A (Dalton City Hall) and Precinct 3A (Whitfield County Senior Center), Precinct 5A (American Legion Post 112) and Precinct 6A (Mack Gaston Community Center), Precinct Westside (Westside Middle School) and Precinct Trickum (Lakeside Baptist Church) and Precinct Upper Tenth (Upper Tenth Community Building) and Precinct Lower Tenth (Little Prospect Baptist Church).

The hearing will be held Thursday, Sept. 11, at the elections office at the courthouse. Board members will vote after the hearing on whether to adopt the changes. If they approve the changes, they will take effect Jan. 1, 2026.

Election Supervisor Shaynee Bryson told Board members the consolidated sites would have more voting machines and more poll workers to deal with the larger number of voters.

“This will address some of the ADA issues that we have had, and that we have wanted to address for some years,” said Board Chairman Rob Cowan.

The combined 1A/3A precinct would vote at the senior center. 5A/6A would vote at the community center. Trickum/Westside would vote at Lakeside Baptist Church. The voting place for Upper Tenth/Lower Tenth is still under consideration.

Bryson explained some of the ADA issues prompting these changes to Board members.

“We have struggled with some of our sites,” she said. “Our awesome county Public Works Department has corrected the issues with our county-owned sites. But some of our sites the county doesn’t own.”

“The sidewalk from the handicapped parking spaces to the polling place in 1A (City Hall) is incredibly steep,” she said.

Bryson said that rather than take the sidewalk from the parking lot to the polling place, many handicapped voters leave the parking lot to walk along the sidewalk on Waugh Street to the front of City Hall to enter, which is a longer trip.

She said combining 5A and 6A at the community center is being recommended because “Mack Gaston is the perfect polling place. Everything there is textbook ADA accessible. The parking lot is huge. It can easily handle the number of voters.”

Bryson said there are ADA issues at Westside Middle School. She said she also has security concerns about holding voting in schools because it brings people into the building who otherwise would not be there.

Board members will likely discuss these issues further when they meet Thursday, Aug. 7, at 8:30 a.m. in the elections office in the courthouse.

Those who object to the proposed changes must file those objections prior to the September public hearing. Objections can be filed at the elections office on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Board members also voted unanimously to move the Eastside polling location to Welcome Hill Baptist, 2772 E. Welcome Hill Circle, Dalton. That change is effective immediately. Polling had been taking place at Pye Kia. Bryson said there were ADA issues there.

“The church is ADA accessible,” Bryson said. “The parking lot is flat, and they are happy to have us there.”

Voters in that precinct will be sent notification of the change and new precinct cards in time for the November election.

On Monday, the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners approved a $532,543 bid from Integrated Builds of Chattanooga for an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramp for the courthouse. The courthouse has an exterior elevator for handicapped access, and last year, the county installed a temporary ramp before early voting in the presidential primary to ease access for those taking advantage of early voting in that primary, the general primary and the general election. That ramp remains in place.

Commissioners said that with advance voting, which takes place at the courthouse, growing in numbers each election the federal government wants the county to improve handicapped access to the building.

Elections Board members on Friday also certified the results of the July 15 special election Democratic Party primary for the District 3 seat on the state Public Service Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities. In Whitfield County, 203 people voted in that election. Peter Hubbard won both Whitfield County and the state. He will face Republican Party incumbent Fitz Johnson in the November general election.

Bryson told Board members that the state will conduct a risk-limiting audit of that election on July 24. These audits involve comparing hand-counted ballots from randomly selected batches to the results reported by voting machines.