Paris Township residents to vote at Mound City on Nov. 4

***Paris Townshp voters will be casting in-person votes at the Linn County Courthouse Annex across Main Street from the courthouse in Mound City on Nov. 4. (Journal file photo)***

By Charlene Sims

MOUND CITY – The Farlinville Grange building, long a polling place for Paris Township residents, will be closed for November’s general election. Linn County Clerk Danielle Souza announced the closing of the voting location last week citing low voter turnout and cost savings.

Souza said that Paris Township voters will now place their votes at the Linn County Courthouse Annex voting location for the Nov. 4 election.

She cited the cost of replacing the voting machine. which is replaced every five years, and eliminating the three poll worker positions as additional justification for the move.

Souza was quoted as saying the 2023 city and school election brought only 20 in-person voters to the location. More than 120 voters cast ballots there in the presidential election last November.

The clerk also indicated she was considering increasing the poll workers pay. A resolution passed early this year before former county clerk David Lamb retired raised that pay to $9 per hour, up from less than $8 per hour. Poll workers have been paid at the federal reimbursement rate for mileage as well.

Last week, the county website showed that the clerk's office planned to pay a flat rate for poll workers beginning at $195 per day. And in a phone call on Friday, Sept. 5, Souza said that she and elections officer Cheyenne Kern were looking at a pay scale of $195 per day for polling clerks, $225 for polling judges and $270 for poll supervising judges.

In addition to supervising polling sites, the supervising judges have to travel more to pick up the ballots on election day.

When Souza was asked if the flat rate would be fair to all poll workers since some drive 20-plus miles one way and others only drive a couple of miles, she answered that she and Kern, had not considered that. Since then, the flat rate has been removed from the website.

As this article was being published on Tuesday evening, Souza had not responded to emails requesting information on any updates to the proposed changes. The first request for that information was made Tuesday morning.

During the phone call on Friday, Souza was asked whether people who were long-time experienced poll workers would be notified about the need to apply for the positions for the next election. The application is on the county’s website. Souza said that all current poll workers were being sent the information and applications.

Poll workers have been receiving the applications and are being asked to come to a non-mandatory meeting on Sept. 26 to discuss what works and what doesn’t work on election day. Workers will not be reimbursed for time or travel to that meeting.