Lynchburg City Council has called a special meeting for next week to re-open discussion about selecting a new site for the Heritage Elementary School polling place.
Councilmen Jeff Helgeson and Turner Perrow requested the meeting late Friday in hopes of getting more than one site considered for the new voting location. Under council rules, a special meeting can be scheduled at the request of any two council members.
Liberty University, the driving force behind this issue, had also requested a special meeting Friday citing dissatisfaction with an earlier decision on the matter.
On Tuesday, City Council voted to move ahead with relocating the Heritage Elementary polling place, but rejected a site suggestion from LU, instead favoring the Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene on Wards Ferry Road.
LU, whose on-campus students vote in the Heritage Elementary precinct and now make up the majority of the electorate there, wants to see the polling place moved closer to the university. Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene sits near the center of the precinct and is closer to LU.
The school had offered the use of the Candlers Station shopping center, which it recently acquired, but a majority of council opposed that on the grounds it was unfair to non-LU voters and concern that the shopping center is outside the precinct it would be serving.
In a letter dispatched to the mayor late Friday afternoon, LU Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said the school had “serious concerns” about the accessibility of the Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene and suggested Thomas Road Baptist Church, which is located in the precinct, as another alternative.
“Since the new polling location is necessary in order to accommodate the large number of Liberty voters, it stands to reason that the location should be convenient to Liberty’s campus,” Falwell wrote. “… This is an opportunity for the Council to show Liberty University students that they are attentive to their needs and recognize them as a valuable part of the Lynchburg community.”
Falwell went on to ask for a special council meeting to discuss putting other locations in the running for the new polling place.
Council has a regular meeting coming up in less than two weeks, but must act quickly if it wants to consider any additional locations in order to satisfy the requirements of state and federal voting laws.
Adding locations to the list means they will be vetted by the Lynchburg Electoral Board and included in a Feb. 23 public hearing.
The special meeting of council has been set for 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 900 Church St.
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