Buncombe County advances plan for consolidated warehouse to house elections operations

At a meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Elections, county project managers and elections staff presented advance planning for a consolidated county warehouse intended to relocate storage and operations now dispersed across multiple county buildings and to provide a secure, dedicated area for election operations.

The project team described the draft planning footprint, security features and a preliminary timetable. Robert Brown, an architect and project manager with Buncombe County General Services, said the draft total building size being discussed is about "90,000 to 100,000 square feet" in early planning and that the elections program is currently planned for roughly 31,467 square feet within that building. "The entire building will be classified as secure," Brown said, adding that elections would be built as a higher security area inside the facility.

Why it matters: Elections staff currently operate from multiple county locations (including 50 Cox and Valley Street floors) and officials said consolidation aims to remove storage and operations from sites slated for affordable housing and to provide training, secure storage and…