Voters with concealed carry advised not to bring guns when voting in schools
We are just hours away from electing the 45th president of the United State. Sometimes schools are used as polling places.
There have been few calls to our newsroom about gun concerns and carrying.
We all can understand the worries that parents have, but Bonneville’s Director of School Safety said parents have nothing to worry about.
As voters cast their ballots on Election Day, many polling places can be found in schools, and this brings up the question of safety.
Gordon Howard is the Director of School Safety for the Bonneville School District.
There is a little more concern since there will be higher traffic, but school administrators will be vigilant and closely monitoring voters as they come and go, he said.
“Single-point entries, coming through the office, so all the other doors are locked. and I talked to several of our other elementary schools and they said the people voting tomorrow will come through the office. They’re not going to have them sign in but they will have them come through the office area so they can monitor where they’re at,” Howard said.
Howard said it is great that schools are able to provide a polling place, but…
“Obviously students are our number one priority. Their safety and education forum. You know, we try to do everything we can to make them safe in school,” Howard said.
How are polling places selected?
It is all about wheelchair accessibility, said Bonneville County Clerk Penny Manning.
“That’s one of our requirements by law. We often times pick schools because they’re already accessible because they need to be and secondly, we just don’t have a lot of choices. In our county alone, we have 51 precincts, so we use almost every available building,” Manning said.
Idaho law dictates where people can and cannot carry guns, but as far as schools go, if the policy is gun-free, then that is the law, she said.
“If there is a building that has ‘no firearms’ posted on the sign, people should be honoring that,” Manning said.
Polling Places in Eastern Idaho and Western Wyoming Area (asterisks symbolize home address requirement):
