DANVERS — If you vote in Tuesday's state primary, you better steer clear of the high school. The town has created four polling locations, and Danvers High isn't one of them.
For the first time in more than two years, the town will have more than one polling place, employing Holten Richmond Middle School, Thorpe School, Smith School and the Senior Center as voting places.
Each will contain voting for two precincts.
If you live in Precincts 1 or 2, you should vote at Holten Richmond Middle School on Conant Street.
If you live in Precincts 3 or 5, you should vote at Thorpe School on Avon Road.
Those living in Precincts 4 and 6 should head to Smith School on Lobao Drive.
Residents in Precincts 7 and 8 will vote in the Senior Center. It's the first time the town will use this facility as a polling location.
If you are unsure in which precinct you live, or where you should vote, you should go to www.danvers.govoffice.com/ and click on the "Where Do I Vote?" link.
To alleviate concerns about traffic at the polls, school won't be in session and all programming at the Senior Center will be canceled to create parking spaces for voters. A dirt road toward the back of the Senior Center, past Gates Field, will be opened to create more than one way out of the site.
Voting at Holten Richmond will be in the gym, with access through a side door along Lane Parkway, the main driveway to the school. Lane Parkway will also have several handicapped parking spaces created closest to the gym.
Smith School, which has been used as a polling place in the past, has two parking areas for voters. The lower parking area by the school's gym, where voting will take place, can accommodate about 25 cars. Thorpe School's voting will take place at the back of the school.
Officials plan to put signs at the high school on Cabot Road warning voters of the polling location switch. Joseph Collins, the town clerk, plans to call voters' homes the night before the election using the town's automated notification system. A banner will also be hung in Danvers Square alerting residents to the election.
In October 2007, selectmen voted to consolidate eight precinct locations under one Vye Gym roof at the high school, starting with the 2008 Super Tuesday primary. The move was meant to cut down on confusion of where to go to vote and to save $5,000 in election costs.
Town Manager Wayne Marquis and Collins said yesterday that the town had not figured out how much the increase in the number of polling locations might cost for added signs, custodial overtime and police details.
Opponents of a single polling place feared it would make it tough to get to the polls.
In May 2008, Town Meeting held a nonbinding vote to restore more than one poll. The snowy special U.S. Senate election in January, during which voters were stuck in traffic, and construction at Danvers High for the next two years spelled the end of the single polling location experiment, for now.
For additional information, call Town Hall at 978-777-0001, ext. 3051 or 3053.
Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or eforman@salemnews.com.
Where to vote in Danvers
If you used to vote at ...You are in Precinct ...And you should vote at ...
Town Hall1Holten Richmond Middle School
Highlands School2Holten Richmond Middle School
Riverside School3Thorpe School
St. John's Prep4Smith School
Thorpe School5Thorpe School
Smith School6Smith School
Great Oak School7Senior Center
Engine 2 Fire Station8Senior Center
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