Wayne council votes to consolidate six precincts into three and keep polling at Hype Center

The Wayne City Council approved a resolution to consolidate the city’s six voting precincts into three and to continue using the Hype Center as a centralized polling location.

City Clerk explained the change as a cost-saving and administrative measure, saying the consolidation reduces the number of precinct workers and the number of tabulators that require maintenance. The clerk said the reduction responds to changed voting patterns since 2024 and the expansion of early and absentee voting: "with the implementation of early voting, also with the any reason absentee voting, the number of voters that go to the precinct has been, reduced. So, it's it's just a cost savings."

Under the approved plan the clerk combined top-of-map precincts (6 and 3) into a new Precinct 3, combined 4 and 5 into Precinct 2, and combined 1 and 2 into Precinct 1. The clerk said she did not redraw ward boundaries: "All the boundaries stayed the same. I didn't wanna mess with redrawing lines." She added the map leaves room for growth in future presidential elections.

The clerk told council that early voting will continue to be held at the police station and that the Hype Center was chosen for Election Day in part because it previously served as a consolidated location for short-notice special elections: "The law says you can have up to 6 voting precincts in 1 location. We're only gonna have 3... This way we'll only be using 3 of those rooms and they'll all be centrally located at Hype."

Councilmember Quarles moved to approve and Mayor Pro Tem Brock seconded. The council approved the resolution by roll call; all members present voted yes.