5,000 voters in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, will have a new polling place in 2024 election. Here's why.
RADNOR TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) – Voters on the Main Line might have to go to a different polling location this November after Radnor Township changed the boundaries of its voting districts. Officials said 5,000 voters will see a change in polling location.
One of those voters is 73-year-old Marylou Crandell, who doesn't have a car. Under the old ward boundaries, she would have had to take an Uber to vote at the Radnor Township Municipal Building. But now she only has to walk across the street to the Radnor Township Civic Association building on Highland Avenue.
"It's delightful," Crandell said. "I don't know how to say it. It's just wonderful."
However, some voters questioned why the change was happening less than four months before the presidential election.
"I think there will be a great deal of confusion," Radnor Township resident John Ryan said. "I think people have a difficult time already finding the place to go."
Radnor Township commissioner Jack Larkin says Radnor has to redistrict its wards every 10 years using the latest census data because the township's charter requires it.
"The goal is to have basically every vote in the township be of equal value to every other vote," Larkin said, "so we want to ensure that within some reasonable margin of error, every ward has a population that's roughly similar to that of every other ward."
Larkin said residents will get three mailings letting them know if their polling locations have changed. The Radnor Township Civic Association believes the redistricting will increase voter access.
"For a lot of our residents on the street, they don't have access to cars and public transportation won't necessarily get them there," Ebony Gilley, assistant treasurer for the Radnor Township Civic Association board, said. "So, this would be great for our community."
Crandell said she wouldn't miss the chance to cast her ballot no matter how far she has to travel because the stakes are too high this election.
"It just breaks my heart that people don't realize that if we don't take advantage of the rights we have, we are going to lose even more," Crandell said.
