Consolidated voting locations approved

This is just for the constitutional amendment election. It does not affect the primaries.”

Schelana Hock

Polling locations for the Nov. 4 General Election were approved by the Polk County Commissioners Court during a special called meeting Monday. Because the constitutional amendment elections are historically low turnout, polling locations have been consolidated to the following eight places (two per precinct):

• Precinct 1: Escapees Clubhouse at 100 Rainbow Dr. in Livingston and Goodrich ISD Administration Office at 223 Katie Simpson Ave. in Goodrich.
• Precinct 2: Onalaska Sub-Courthouse at 14111 US Hwy. 190 West in Onalaska and Blanchard Baptist Church at 2450 FM 2457 in Livingston.
• Precinct 3: Sechrest Webster Community Center at 100 W. Front St. in Corrigan and Alabama-Coushatta Administration Building at 571 State Park Rd. #56 in Livingston.
• Precinct 4: Polk County Judicial Center at 101 W. Mill St. in Livingston and Schwab City Baptist Church at 10998 SH 146 South in Livingston.

County Clerk Schelana Hock provided some background on the consolidation of polling places for the constitutional amendment election.

“In prior years before we went to countywide polling locations, we always did just five locations for Election Day. Now that we are countywide, we’re required to have the same amount of polling locations per commissioner precinct. So the way we arrived at eight is doing wo locations per commissioner precinct,” Hock said.

“The concern the Democratic Party chair had was two of the predominantly minority voting boxes, Blanchard and Dunbar, were not included in the original list, so we changed the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church to Blanchard Baptist Church.

“The elections for 2026 will use the 12 locations we normally use, but there is always a lower turnout for constitutional amendment elections. This is just for the constitutional amendment election. It does not affect the primaries,” Hock said.

During the time allotted for public comment, Ellie Monteaux, the City of Livingston’s city secretary, assistant city manager and elections administrator, addressed the Court.

“We used to contract (with the county) just for counting, but now it’s an actual contract where Schelana’s office actually administers the elections for us and does the early voting and Election Day. I would recommend that the polling places be approved as recommended by the county clerk,” Monteaux said.