Watertown council member to put forth a resolution to keep 2 polling sites open

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - One Watertown city council member is looking for support to continue operating two city polling sites that are set to go on pause.

Council Member Lisa Ruggiero will put forth a resolution at this Monday’s council meeting that would show council support for keeping the sites at the Emma Flower Taylor Fire Station and Midtown Towers open during this upcoming election cycle.

Jefferson County Board of Elections announced back in March that they would be pausing the opening of these sites due to their lack of use and found that they could deploy resources from those sites to the other 4 city polling stations.

When asked about this push to keep the sites open, Ruggiero told 7 News “The residents who use these sites did not know about the closures. There was no press release that this was going to happen. I feel passing this resolution would put the county and the board of elections on notice that the city has always supported these polling sites.”

Ruggiero went on to say she’s not sure this would do anything to change what has already been done, but says in talking with other council members, she does have support to get this passed.

The board of elections did say these sites are just being paused, not permanently closed, and that after this year’s elections all of the polling data will be re-evaluated for next year.

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