City changes some polling places before state primary

Banner Staff

The city’s Elections Department on Monday announced changes to a number of polling locations throughout the city, hoping to inform prospective voters of shifts in time for this coming Tuesday’s state primary elections.

“Certain locations were changed to accommodate handicap[ped] voters,” according to a statement from the office of Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

The changes will go into effect beginning with the state primary on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008.

Residents unsure what ward they live in, what polling place they should go to, or whether they are eligible to vote, can call the Boston Election Department at 617-635-3767. A full listing of voting places by ward and precinct is also available at the Elections Department’s Web site, www.cityofboston.gov/elections.

Several of the shifts come in the Second Suffolk District, site of a hotly contested state Senate race between incumbent Dianne Wilkerson and challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz that has piqued the interests of voters in Roxbury, Mattapan and Jamaica Plain.

Four precincts in Ward 8 have seen their polling place change. Residents of Ward 8, Precinct 2, who used to vote at the Blackstone School on Shawmut Avenue, must now cast their ballots at the Cathedral High School gymnasium, located at 1336 Washington Street. The voter entrance is on the right side of the building, on Union Park Street.

Those who live in Ward 8, Precincts 3, 4 and 5 will no longer vote at Orchard Gardens Elementary School on Albany Street or Mason School on Norfolk Avenue; now, they’ll vote in the gymnasium at the Orchard Gardens Community Center, 2 Dearborn Street.

The United South End Settlements’ Harriet Tubman House on Columbus Avenue is no longer the polling place for Ward 9, Precinct 2. Voters in that area will now need to travel to Washington Manor, located at 1701 Washington Street.

Three precincts — Ward 11, Precinct 3, and Ward 12, Precincts 8 and 9 — that formerly voted at the David A. Ellis School at 302 Walnut Avenue will now have to go down the road a bit to the George A. Lewis School gymnasium, located at 131 Walnut Avenue. The voter entrance is at the corner of Humboldt and Walnut avenues, across the street from the Eliot Church of Roxbury.

Voters in Ward 14’s Precincts 8 and 14, who formerly cast ballots at Solomon Lewenberg School on Outlook Road, will now be accommodated in the Fellowship Hall at Morning Star Baptist Church, located at 1257 Blue Hill Avenue.

Ward 4, Precinct 10 still votes at Simmons College, but the spot has changed from the Park Science Building to LeFavour Hall and Beatley Library. Voting will now take place in the Kotzen Meeting Center and Terrace, Rooms L-001 and L-002.

In Hyde Park, the location for voters in Ward 18, Precinct 20 shifts from the old site at Saint Anne’s School on Como Road to 30 Millstone Road, the former Old Archives Building and now the Hemenway campus of the Franklin D. Roosevelt K-8 School. The voter entrance is on the left side of the building, from Hyde Park Avenue, and voting will take place in room 102.

Voters in Ward 13, Precinct 3 will now vote at the Harbor Point Technology Center, located at 15 Harbor Point Boulevard. Voters will enter to the left of the main entrance on Beach Point Place.