Salt Lake County no longer using schools as polling places

591

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Elections officials in Salt Lake County say they’ve stopped using schools as polling places because of security concerns about bringing outsiders into the building with children.

Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen says the county began rethinking using school gyms and hallways as polling places after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012. She says in addition to worries about allowing people into schools, lockdown procedures at schools when any crime is reported in their neighborhood can cut off access to a polling place.

Swensen told KSL-TV (http://bit.ly/2d9sAgN) that has happened in the county before.

She says with so many people voting by mail, the county has been able to combine precincts and set up centralized polling places at libraries, fire stations and senior centers.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email