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The Charlotte County Board of Supervisors (BOS) will hold a public hearing on Jan. 8 to hear comments pertaining to a proposed voting precinct location change in the Bacon/Saxe voting district following building and parking issues.

During its Dec. 11 meeting, supervisors were informed of a new location that is being considered by Charlotte County Electoral Board President Dean Foster.

According to Foster, the electoral board is now recommending the new polling place be located at New Hope Methodist Church (located at 6101 Scuffletown Road, Randolph).

Foster told the BOS that the new location is on Route 746, about 6.3 miles from the current polling place, but is more centrally located in the voting district.

Currently, the Bacon/Saxe voting precinct is located at the Southall Community Building.

According to Voter Registrar Nan Lambert, parking space is one issue that has been brought up about the community building in Saxe that is in question.

Foster says that wood heating in the building was another issue.

“We moved the voting to an adjacent room for the November elections, which solved the heating issue as it is heated with gas,” he said. “But the room has space limitations.”

In August, Foster addressed the BOS informing them that the electoral board was requesting to use Bacon Elementary School as the new voting precinct, but following safety concerns and the school’s current calendar, the location would not be feasible.

“We had found a place that would have been possible, but it was a school, and we had some issues and conflicts come up with that,” Foster said. “So, we decided to go back and search for a more suitable place.”

The Bacon/Saxe District has 1,086 voters with an average turnout between 300 and 400 voters.

According to Lambert, November’s election saw 531 voters turnout.

Lambert says the community building in Saxe has been a precinct since 1991 when it replaced Priddy’s Store Precinct.

Until 2016 Bacon and Saxe were two separate precincts; voters in Bacon voted at Bacon District Elementary School.