By james art BATON ROUGE — As early voting closes Tuesday, some North Baton Rouge residents are raising concerns about limited access to polling places in their area.
Charles Betley is a longtime North Baton Rouge resident and said the commute from the heart of North Baton Rouge to the nearest early voting location is not easy. For him, the nearest place for early voting is in the center of the town hall.
“I have to cross Florida Boulevard, which separates the parish and the city, just to get to the government building,” Betley said.
He said he has been advocating for years for an early voting site closer to his community and that this creates a barrier for members of his community to vote early.
“You have to ask yourself, why in North Baton Rouge, with a significant population, do we not have early voting locations?” Betley said.
East Baton Rouge Parish currently has five early voting locations, none of which are in North Baton Rouge. East Baton Rouge Secretary of Voters Steve Raborn said he understands the community’s desire for more polling stations, but they are stretched with a limited amount of resources.
“Early voting is based on a regional basis, so we just can’t have one in every community because of cost and staffing issues,” Raborn said.
So far, early voting turnout has doubled since the 2008 election when Barack Obama was elected president, with a current turnout of 25 percent.
Betley believes turnout could be even higher if voting sites were more accessible.
“I think if we had more early voting locations in North Baton Rouge, you would see an increase in voter turnout,” he said.
The Metropolitan Transit System will waive fares on Election Day.