The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved a preliminary plan to consolidate eight polling stations into four.

The board will hold a public hearing April 23 before it can move forward with the action, which will ultimately reduce the number of precincts in the county from 42 to 40. Ten years ago, the county had 58 precincts, said Jeff Tate, chairman of Lauderdale County Election Commission.

If approved, the following precincts will merge: Green Hill Missionary Baptist Church with Mt. Gillead Baptist Church and South Lauderdale Fire Station with Mt. Vernon Baptist Church.

Tate said the change will affect only a small number of voters. 

“Each of these precincts are less than a mile away from each other,” said Tate, who added that those affected will receive a new voter registration card before the June 5 primary. “It really is just a waste of money to have two precincts a half a mile from each other — one have a couple hundred people show up to vote and one precinct have less than 20. There’s no reason that these precincts can’t be combined.”

If you vote at one of these precincts and you don’t receive a new card by mid-May, call the Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk’s office at 601-482-9731.

This comes after the county purchased 42 new state-of-the-art scanners for just less than $328,000, as Lauderdale County is returning to the paper ballot system for the 2018 midterm elections.

This change comes after years of using the digital touchscreen system, which Tate said is not as efficient and doesn’t provide the “paper trail” needed for an accurate count.

The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors last year approved an item that would allow the county to accept bids for the scanners. The scanners were purchase using $13,623.51 from the Help America Vote Act and Help MS Vote Act grants, $204,185.68 from the Mississippi Election Support Fund, and the rest, Tate said, from the election commission’s budget.

In other action, the board approved an item that will allow the county to advertise for bids for one more half-ton pickup truck for supervisor use. District 3 Supervisor Josh Todd said some of the current vehicles, which were purchased for about $36,000, have a resale value of about $33,000 after two years of use.