District 4 voters in Lauderdale County who usually cast a ballot at the Frank Cochran Center will have to cross the street to Meridian Community College’s Magnolia Hall this August.

Lauderdale County supervisors approved the move at a meeting Monday. 

Problems with air conditioning units at the Cochran Center made for sweltering poll workers last year, said District 4 Election Commissioner Gloria Dancy.

“I told (the board of supervisors) I can’t ask people to work in that building in August without any air,” she said. “That is a metal building.”

At a June supervisors meeting, Dancy told the board that one of her poll workers nearly had a heat stroke in 2018.

City of Meridian Public Safety Director Doug Stephens said in a June interview that the air conditioning randomly works or doesn’t. The city was looking for solutions and informing those who rent the building of the faulty air conditioning, he said.

With election time fast approaching, the only option was to relocate, Dancy said.

Dancy said city council representative Kim Houston reached out to the community college’s president and secured the new polling place.

“They graciously offered us to use Magnolia Hall,” said Dancy.

Dancy said the new polling place checks off all the necessary boxes: it is handicap accessible, has “ample space,” working air and restroom access.

Voters who show up to the Cochran Center will be greeted by a stander pointing them to the new polling place, said Dancy.

Magnolia Hall is across the street from the Cochran Center.

Absentee ballots ready

For those who will be out of town for the Aug. 6 primary election, absentee ballots are ready. Mississippi does not allow early voting. Instead, it requires a specific reason for not being able to show up on voting day.

“If you are going to be out of town on vacation, a conference, surgery, or working during the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., [those] are just a few of the reasons to not wait but go to your circuit clerk’s office and vote now,” said a news release from Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk Donna Jill Johnson.

For more information or to vote absentee, contact the circuit clerk’s office at 601-482-9731 or circuitclerk@lauderdalecounty.org.