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Frederick 's Board of Supervisors of Elections is doing what it can to make sure city voters make it to the correct polling place for Tuesday's primary. "We have taken, I think, great strides to promote the fact that polling places have changed," said Anne Leffler, president of the city's election board. The city is supervising its own elections for the first time, a job usually reserved for the Frederick County Board of Elections. With schools not an option for polling places, the city had to find sites that are different from the locations where city voters usually cast ballots. The city has initiated a campaign to let residents know about their new place to vote. Efforts include maps posted at public facilities, advertisements in local newspapers, public service announcements on local radio and notification on public access channels. "If people don't know by now where their polling place is, I personally suspect they're not interested in voting," Leffler said. City voters should have also received new voter registration cards showing their new municipal election voting location and their state and federal election site. Frederick County Public Schools has excluded the city from using school property for polling places. Because city elections occur in different years from national elections, schools are not closed and would be in session during the municipality's voting. Five of the six city polling locations will be in churches. Three of the city's central precincts will use the William R. Talley Recreation Center as a polling place. Leffler said people who show up to their regular polling location will be greeted by a large map showing them where to go to vote. She said it's hard to predict whether or not the change in locations will affect voter turnout. The last primary election in 2005 had a turnout of 6,202 of the total 24,164 registered Republicans and Democrats, or about 25 percent of city voters.
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