Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY COUNTY- The Board of Supervisors voted Aug. 28, 2024 in favor of a budget amendment for the new Blacksburg satellite voting office, but the vote was not unanimous.
Discussion concerning the office has been passionate, as some board members see it as not fair and others see it as helping their constituents. Currently, the budget amendment states that the total cost of the satellite office will be $17,118, with $9,003 of that going toward staffing and seasonal requirements. $8,115 of that total are a VA DOE Equipment Grant to help with equipment costs for this polling office. With the 2024 election incoming, many are worried about getting to the polls in time as well as the congestion at the polls. Some believe, residents and board members alike, that this satellite office will be helpful, whereas others believe that if there’s one in Blacksburg, there needs to be satellite offices in other parts of Montgomery County.
“If we were going to do this,” Supervisor Todd King said, “We should have done this for everybody. Everybody. We have never done this before. I think some of you would be as upset as me at the last election if I sat up here and said, ‘one district is going to vote early and the rest of you will have to wait. So, we’re going to let District D vote, nobody else gets any.’ You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t be upset at me because you would. I don’t think it’s fair.”
“I can’t speak for everybody,” Supervisor Sara Bohn said, “but I know that wherever early voting is, I would go vote. I always early vote, so if it was in another district, I would have voted. I’m for early voting and I would have liked to have at least two other voting centers, but that’s not happening. I’m okay with that. I don’t live in Blacksburg, but I might just as well go vote.”
Bohn, in one of the earlier meetings discussing this satellite location, made a motion to add others, but that motion was overturned.
The Board of Supervisors voted on the budget amendment to pass, with four approved and three against.
