PHOENIX \u2014 For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, Arizona\u2019s largest public school district isn\u2019t opening its schools to voters as polling sites.<\/p>\n
The reasons have been building for years, but the final straw for Mesa Public Schools officials came last November with a small, low-turnout election that became mired in misinformation and menace.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very chaotic,\u201d Assistant Superintendent Scott Thompson recalled. \u201cIt was overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although voting was supposed to be done mostly by mail, mistrust led many voters to drive to the schools to fill out their ballots in person, causing traffic jams and confrontations. Voters confused school staff for election workers and harangued them. Some accused school staff of \u201cdisenfranchising voters\u201d for hosting secure ballot drop boxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine it in 2024,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t know how to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n
For generations, public school gymnasiums, classrooms and cafeterias have been fundamental to American elections. But when voters in Maricopa County \u2014 home to Phoenix and more than half of this swing state\u2019s registered voters \u2014 show up to make their voices heard in November, chances are, it likely won\u2019t be at a school. Some will instead head to rented-out storefronts. Others to aquatic centers. Or even a funeral home.<\/p>\n
In the eight years since Donald Trump was first on the ballot, hundreds of schools throughout this fiercely contested battleground county are no longer willing to assume the risks associated with holding elections. In 2016, 37 percent of county polling locations were schools, according to a Washington Post analysis of data obtained through a public records request. So far this year, it\u2019s 14 percent.<\/p>\n
Heightened school safety protocols and sustained attacks on voting systems and the people who run them \u2014 largely by Trump and his supporters \u2014 have prompted school leaders across America in both red and blue states to close their doors to the democratic process, according to interviews with nearly 20 school district leaders, county officials, school safety officials and election experts. In at least 33 states, the law says public buildings, including schools, can or should be made available as polling locations. In many districts, administrators now cancel classes on Election Day.<\/p>\n
The challenge has been especially acute in Arizona, where Trump\u2019s narrow loss in 2020 inspired ceaseless conspiracies, false assertions that his and other GOP losses were illegitimate and death threats against county leaders who oversee voting and the workers on the front lines of running elections. Trump allies like Kari Lake, a Republican who lost her 2022 race for Arizona governor and is now running for the Senate, have empowered self-styled election-fraud detectors who are critical of both elections and the public school system.<\/p>\n
Schools in the state can opt out of elections if principals say they don\u2019t have enough space or if the safety of students is at risk. Administrators say there is little upside to taking part in an exercise that can draw divisiveness and intimidating scenes \u2014 creating a crisis for election officials who must provide convenient and accessible voting locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this environment, where you have people with body cameras and weapons that are being brandished, that is a concern \u2014 that is intimidating for many people,\u201d said Scott Menzel, superintendent of the Scottsdale school district. \u201cIt just takes one flash point to ignite something that\u2019s catastrophic and I absolutely don\u2019t want that to happen on any one of my campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trendline endangers the very voting method that Trump and many of his supporters have spent the past four years demanding: in-person voting.<\/p>\n
The decline of school participation could confuse voters accustomed to stopping by familiar institutions to vote, experts said, adding an extra step to find a voting center that some people might be unwilling to take. Public schools are often core to the identities of communities big and small, and their proximity to voters and large spaces make them ideal to accommodate crowds and voting equipment.<\/p>\n
Maricopa County has had to scramble to find replacements, often resorting to renting privately owned spaces, including those in shopping malls. Officials have budgeted nearly $1 million to lease voting locations this year, up from $53,000 in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot provide an in-person voting model without the support of our community,\u201d said Scott Jarrett, a county elections director. \u201cThat\u2019s schools, it\u2019s churches, it\u2019s community centers, it\u2019s trusted buildings inside of our communities. It is a civic duty and a responsibility that we all share to make sure that we have a strong democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maricopa County has a three-person team in charge of finding polling sites. They have grown accustomed to hearing the refrain: \u201cSorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late last year, they began planning for this year\u2019s presidential election, according to election officials. They spend days driving from one edge of the county\u2019s boundaries to the other. As one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation, new opportunities are literally built every election cycle, and officials said the team scribbles addresses into scouting notebooks.<\/p>\n
The team examines records from the county assessor\u2019s website, looking for large properties and contact information. They even stumbled upon retired NBA star Charles Barkley\u2019s home, which seemed large enough to host a site, although election officials said they did not ask him.<\/p>\n
The team sizes up everything from building space to parking lots and determines if they meet all sorts of requirements, such as accessibility for those with disabilities. They email and call schools, town halls, commercial building managers and others who previously opened their doors or may consider doing so for the first time.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the elections in 2022, they emphasized their \u201cdesperate need\u201d of polling places, according to emails reviewed by The Post. This year they\u2019re instead stressing the need for community involvement in democracy.<\/p>\n
Many declined, citing parking, insufficient space or no reason at all. Over the past four years, 159 locations stopped serving as sites \u2014 including 28 schools, according to The Post\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n
In 2016, schools made up 239 of the county\u2019s 644 polling locations during the general election, according to The Post\u2019s analysis. Four years later, amid the pandemic, the county changed its rules to fully allow voters to cast their ballots at any polling location instead of an assigned precinct, reducing the overall number of locations for the general election to just 175. That year, 27 schools participated.<\/p>\n
There has been no rebound, as election officials had hoped: For a July 30 primary, just 31 of 221 polling locations were expected to be schools, as of June 28. General election locations have not yet been finalized but will likely be similar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is people making a cost-benefit analysis,\u201d said Bill Gates, a Republican county supervisor. \u201cThe costs are perceived as being greater because it could create issues or bring threats of violence \u2014 or even violence. And by hosting a vote center, could they be pulled into a conspiracy? Is it worth it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Curtis Finch, a superintendent from a school district north of downtown Phoenix, said he considered hosting a polling site.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeck no,\u201d he instinctively thought to himself. \u201cHave you been reading the newspapers lately?\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022, he had to tell a man who showed up with a firearm in this open-carry state that weapons were not allowed on school property, he recalled. And he said belligerent voters yelled at his staff over lines.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the old days, it was fun, and people were all excited to come vote \u2014 red, blue, green, didn\u2019t matter what your party was, they weren\u2019t yelling and screaming at each other,\u201d Finch said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a big production. Well, now it\u2019s a big production.\u201d<\/p>\n
After weeks of negotiating, Finch agreed to allow a district office to be used as a polling site \u2014 only because children can be easily separated from voters, he said. He also offered up a bus parking garage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been trying to be a good neighbor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Over the past two decades, amid school shootings and heightened safety protocols, many schools across the country began bowing out of participating in elections. The covid-19 pandemic in 2020 accelerated the pullback, as administrators worried about the spread of the deadly virus. And amid deepening Republican distrust of institutions and elections, it has been difficult to recruit those schools back, according to school and election officials, and a national report that examined where people vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in the highest state of ambiguity, uncertainty and anxiety around school safety than we\u2019ve ever been in my more than three decades in this field,\u201d said Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, which consults for school districts. School leaders he works with \u201care on edge sometimes to the point where, quite honestly, we\u2019re telling people to stop and breathe. To exhale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schools that are able to move polling away from their campuses have done so, but many cannot, often because of state laws requiring that they serve as voting sites if asked. Those school districts have increasingly held staff-only training days on Election Day, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe schools that have gotten rid of it are happy that they did, and they\u2019re not going back,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThose that still have it will tell you privately, \u2018No, I wish it wasn\u2019t here, but we\u2019re stuck with it and we\u2019re doing the best we can.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In some counties, the number schools that are hosting polling locations has gone up.<\/p>\n
In Florida\u2019s fast-growing Osceola County, some churches, YMCAs and other community institutions view participation in elections as burdensome, exacerbating \u201cpolling place deserts,\u201d said Mary Jane Arrington, the county\u2019s supervisor of elections. When they refuse, she said she turns reluctantly to schools, which must participate under Florida law.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s inconvenient all around,\u201d she said. \u201cBut unfortunately, other community buildings just aren\u2019t as receptive to us as they used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
In New Jersey, Union County election board administrator Nicole DiRado is also relying more heavily on schools, which can lose state funding if they refuse to host polling places. The overwhelming majority of the county\u2019s 156 polling places this year are schools, DiRado said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I get it \u2014 I have two kids in public school,\u201d DiRado said. Before she learned their school would be closed, she added, \u201cI thought about keeping them home this year on Election Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all the challenges in Maricopa County, there have been wins.<\/p>\n
Over the past four years, 109 new polling locations have emerged, including 15 school-affiliated ones and a large viewing room at a mortuary \u2014 although it\u2019s only available on Election Day, election officials said, as it\u2019s needed for funerals most other days.<\/p>\n
The newly opened Mountain Park Health Center in a city west of Phoenix was designed to ensure that its community room and parking lot are large enough to accommodate voters. Though that clinic will not be a polling site this year because of election-calendar deadlines, two of its other locations will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople feel healthy and stronger when they\u2019re part of decision-making,\u201d said Dr. John Swagert, the center\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n
And churches make up a higher proportion of polling places, a trend largely driven by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which emphasizes civic participation. The church planned to provide 27 buildings for this year\u2019s primary, as of June 28, a decade high for the Church, according to The Post\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really comes down to: we cherish the opportunity to live in a country where we have the privilege to vote,\u201d said Candice Copple, the LDS Church\u2019s Arizona spokesperson. \u201cIf we can be helpful by making it easier for people to have a nearby location to cast their vote, we\u2019re glad to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morse and Natanson reported from Washington.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
PHOENIX \u2014 For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, Arizona\u2019s largest public school district isn\u2019t opening its schools to voters as polling sites. The reasons have been building for years, but the final straw for Mesa Public Schools officials came last November with a small, low-turnout election that became mired in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}