The Appomattox County Board of Supervisors is weighing a proposal to close at least one of the county’s smallest voting precincts.
The Virginia NAACP has said that the move would disenfranchise voters in precincts that have the highest percentages of Black and minority voters in the county. The county’s board of elections said the move is needed to save money.
The NAACP noted in a statement Tuesday that the closure of the county’s smallest voting locations, Chap and Agee, would negatively affect Black voters, many of whom would be forced to travel up to an additional 30 minutes driving or four hours walking to cast their ballot.
“Throughout our history, various tactics have been employed to limit access to the ballot, including precinct closures, voter ID laws, and other measures that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. The proposed precinct closure plan, if enacted, would perpetuate these historical patterns and result in barriers to participation for Black voters in Appomattox County,” the Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of the Virginia NAACP, said in a statement.
The organization urged the board of supervisors to instead pursue an alternate solution “that preserves the fundamental rights of all Appomattox County voters without imposing undue burdens on Black and other voters of color.”
The percentages of Black voters in the Chap and Agee voting precincts are 36.7% and 24.4%, respectively, and the total percentages of minority voters are 40.27% and 27.82%, respectively, the Virginia NAACP said. Nearly 18% of the total population in Appomattox County is Black and about 21% of the total population is minority, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The county electoral board decided, in a meeting Tuesday, to recommend the closure of the Agee precinct to the board of supervisors but will recommend a pause on closing the Chap location, Appomattox registrar Patricia Morton said after the meeting had concluded. She cited resident feedback and a desire to find a more central location for the Chap precinct as the reason for that pause. The board of elections will make its recommendation to the county board in two weeks, she said.
Neither board of supervisors Chair John Hinkle or Vice Chair Alfred Jones III responded to a request for comment on Tuesday. Members of the Appomattox Board of Elections did not respond to a request for comment.
When did this process start?
In a presentation to the board of supervisors in January, electoral board secretary Lannis Selz said that it “behooves” the body to make changes in an effort to cut spending.
“One of those may be reducing the number of Election Day voting precincts from nine to seven,” he told the county board. He argued that it would generate savings each year in operating costs and equipment.
He suggested incorporating the Chap voting location into Spout Springs and the Agee voting location into Oakville. He noted that Chap and Agee are the county’s two smallest voting precincts, with less than 60 voters turning out to vote in recent special elections at each site.
In November, Agee had 293 voters and Chap had 265 voters cast ballots. About 1,382 voters could be affected by the closure of the two locations, according to Selz’s presentation to the board. Appomattox County has a population of nearly 17,000.
There were 1,376 registered voters between the two precincts in the November election. Appomattox County has a population of nearly 17,000, with nearly 13,000 registered voters. Precincts across the county range from the smallest, Agee, with 604 registered voters in November to the largest, Courthouse, with 2,392 registered voters.
In some counties with similar population size, the number of precincts and the voters they serve vary. Buckingham County, next door to Appomattox, has a population of around 17,000 people and 10 voting precincts. Its smallest precinct is Wrights, which had 576 registered voters in November. Patrick County, which has a population of about 17,500, boasts 12 precincts, with its smallest being Stuart Community, which served 622 registered voters in November. And Giles County, with a population of about 16,500, has nine precincts — its smallest being Glen Lyn with 204 registered voters.
Back in Appomattox, Selz noted that the Agee Community Center needs upgrades if it were to continue to serve as a polling location. Currently it has no running water, no air conditioning, poor heating and is not in a convenient location. The Chap location does not have those issues, however, as it’s located in a church, he said.
If the precincts were closed by April, that action would save the board roughly $7,000 between fiscal years 2025 and 2026, Selz said. Long-term capital savings would be around $27,000 in equipment costs.
Jones, vice chair of the county board, issued his support for consolidating the Agee voting location into Oakville to avoid allocating money into facility upgrades, during the January meeting.
A month later, county residents were able to voice their concerns regarding the possible closure during a board of supervisors meeting.
One resident noted that the parking lots at Oakville and Spout Springs would need to be expanded or updated to accommodate an increase in voters. Another resident who votes at the Chap location noted that older residents will not want to travel further to cast their ballot.
Any changes would need to be finalized by April 18, 60 days before the June primary.