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Editorial: Clearing a path for voters
Op-Ed · October 05, 2017


We would like to commend the City of West Branch for the extra effort made by its staff to ensure anyone who wanted to vote Sept. 12 could, regardless of construction around Town Hall.


Construction tied to the First Street Improvement Project including tearing out the road and some sections of sidewalk, yet the city worked with the contractors to make accommodations.

The City reopened First Street to allow handicapped motorists to drive on what at the time was a gravel section of road adjacent to Town Hall. The City posted a sign showing where to enter the single lane that ran along side the voting location, to the west.

Another handicapped parking sign went out front, to the south.

In both cases, voters, if they wished, were allowed to remain in their vehicles and election judges came outside to help them cast ballots.

West Branch Police Department officers helped keep an eye on the parking areas.

Also, officers and election judges helped the elderly and disabled to and from the building, including up and down the wheelchair lift, to get inside to vote.

These ideas came after conversations with an advocate of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Cedar County Auditor’s office, according to City Administrator Redmond Jones.

Jones congratulated and thanked city staff “who really came together” to improve voting despite construction obstacles.

The election included a $19.8 million school bond referendum that drew great interest, drawing 1,432 total voters when counting early voters and those who used a satellite location a few weeks earlier.

The school bond referendum in February, which was for $19.11 million, drew 1,215 total voters, so this go-around pulled in 205 voters more.

Proponents of the bond referendum pushed to get a lot of voters to the polls. According to the Cedar County Auditor’s office, school elections from the past decade drew as few as 76 voters (2.4 percent, in 2008) for uncontested elections to 491 voters (15.6 percent, in 2013) for contested board elections. The highest school special election was the $19.11 million bond just seven months ago, which drew 30.78 percent of area voters to the polls.

The Sept. 12 election’s 1,432 included the referendum, two open school board seats and a Kirkwood Community College tax extension. Some 45.32 percent of voters in the West Branch Community School district turned up to take part in this bond referendum decision, so it was clearly important that a lot of people wanted access to Town Hall.

The fact that more than 200 voters than February cast ballots strongly suggests that very few, if any, felt it too difficult to reach the ballot box.

After the polls closed, construction equipment and barricades and workers reconverged on First Street, and the work may continue through Thanksgiving.

However, the City of West Branch recognized the importance of voting — and high interest in the school bond referendum — and made a strong effort to help clear a path through the construction site.

They deserve recognition for such an endeavor.