Danbury Polling Place Move That Led to Voter Suppression Claim Postponed

The Danbury City Council postponed any decision on moving the Park Avenue School voting booths to the Moose Lodge Tuesday, but heard from 11 opponents and one supporter of the move.

Glenda Armstrong, a teacher at the Alternative Center for Excellence in Danbury, said people have worked hard for years to encourage people to vote, and this move that would take a downtown voting spot and put it beyond the Danbury Fair Mall toward New York State was creating an obstacle to voting.

Gladys Cooper, the former Board of Education chairwoman, asked if this move was moving Danbury forward or backward. She said it looked to her like the move was backwards. "Don't keep splitting our community," Cooper said. 

Sam Hyman, a long time activist in Danbury, said the move from the Park Avenue School to the Moose Lodge might give the impression, and he emphasized he didn't think this could possibly be true, but it gave the idea someone might have an idea of suppressing voting.

To see the original story on moving the polling place from Park Avenue School to the Moose Lodge on Boulevard Drive, click here.

"I backed off that," Hyman said. "When I think about all the improvements, of all the things we have done in the last 50 years, it makes absolutely no sense. But if it gives the impression of that, it seems like a bad idea. Just chalk it up as a bad mistake."

Marge Curran, a poll worker at the Park Avenue School, spoke in favor of the move, saying the Park Avenue polling place has had parking problems and stairs that get in the way of voters with handicaps. She said buses cause problems and people complain constantly about it.
 
The city council put off any decision until the council meets to discuss it as a committee of the whole. With the elections coming on Nov. 5, a decision about the voting location must be made within roughly a month to give time to publicize its location.