The Lucas County Board of Elections is pressing ahead with a plan that will move more than 45,000 Lucas County voters — mostly in the suburbs — into consolidated voting precincts and polling locations.

Board Director LaVera Scott said it’s part of an inevitable shift toward a handful of voting centers in the county instead of nearly 300.

The board voted 3-1 to approve the plan Tuesday night, with one member questioning the consolidation of precincts in the part of the county where the population is growing. Board member Joshua Hughes, who is also the chairman of the Lucas County Democratic Party, cast the only no vote.

“It gives me pause to be consolidating precincts in parts of our county that are growing,” Mr. Hughes told other board members.

Ms. Scott said the board is being pushed by the Ohio Secretary of State to trim the number of precincts and voting locations.

“We were directed to do this in 2014,” Ms. Scott said. “Vote centers are around the corner. We have to be realistic. That is where we are moving in the near future. We have to be prepared.”

She said the county could in eight years convert to 10 to 30 voting centers instead of more than 200 polling locations now in use.

The precinct changes eliminate 20 precincts and 15 in jurisdictions outside Toledo. In addition, Toledo is losing three polling places. the changes affect 45,760 voters, out of 301,049 total voters.

The largest impacts of the proposed changes are in Maumee, where 12 precincts are being downsized to nine precincts, affecting 7,848 voters.

Springfield Township is seeing 19 precincts consolidated to 16 precincts, affecting 7,097 people.

Similar consolidations are planned in Ottawa Hills, Sylvania, and Waterville and the townships of Jerusalem, Spencer, Sylvania, Washington, and Waterville.

By state law, precincts may have no more than 1,400 voters. However, some have as few as 300 or 400, Ms. Scott said.

Mr. Hughes read a letter from trustees of the Waterside residential community in Monclova Township asking that their Waterside Clubhouse continue to be used as a voting location.

“To relocate and then combine other Monclova precincts for the most populous voting sector in the township would not seem to be a benefit to the board or the voting public,” the letter read.

Mr. Hughes urged a delay for more study.

“To me it seems a bit hurried and rushed,” Mr. Hughes said. The changes had to be approved by July 15 to take effect by the Sept. 12 municipal primary elections.

Mr. Hughes’ fellow Democrat on the four-member board, Brenda Hill of Toledo, noted that the board consolidated Toledo precincts last year.

“It would not be fair to turn around and say, ‘OK, we’ve changed the polling places in Toledo but when it comes to the suburbs we’ll let you pick and choose what you want.’ We have to stay with what we’ve been directed to do by the Secretary of State,” she said

Mr. Hughes is from Oregon, which is consolidating from 17 down to 13 precincts and closing two of eight polling places.

Ms. Scott said Cuyahoga County has eliminated close to half of their precincts since 2014, while Toledo has made only marginal cuts.

Eliminating 20 precincts also eliminates 80 pollworker positions that will save the county agency about $16,000 in each election.

“This is 80 pollworkers that we we don’t have to recruit. That makes a huge difference,” Ms. Scott said.

And with fewer polling locations, that will speed up the delivery of voting materials at the close of voting on Election Day, Ms. Scott said.

Contact Tom Troy at tomtroy@theblade.com, 419-724-6058, or on Twitter @TomFTroy.

First Published June 30, 2017, 4:00 a.m.