Credit unions across the country are set to witness history first-hand on Tue., Nov. 8 as thousands of voters stream into branches to cast their ballots.
Many credit unions – in states as far-ranging as Texas, California, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Utah, Iowa and more – serve as voting locations during elections, offering participating CUs a chance to take part in an important action that impacts their communities and has the potential to introduce new members to the credit union.
Altra CU in Onalaska, Wisc. has been a polling location for the better part of two decades, having stepped up after a change to government rules meant that a local Naval Reserve building could no longer function as a voting place.
"We met all the criteria – we have the space, we're handicapped accessible, we're centrally located and easy to find," said Carol Lloyd Neill, VP of interactive media at the $1.2 billion credit union. "We were approached and we said yes; it's part of our civic duty."
Lloyd Neill won't be at Altra on voting day this year—she's also a deputized voter registrar for the State of Wisconsin, so she'll be off tomorrow and registering voters "from 7:00 a.m. until whenever the line ends at a different polling place." But there will be plenty of action at Altra. Voting equipment was scheduled to be delivered on Monday and a manager will have to stay behind to lock up when poll workers leave once all votes are counted – something that she said often goes until well past midnight.
Voting takes place in the community room on Altra's lower level, and thanks to the credit union's layout, said Lloyd Neill, members who vote at other locations aren't greatly inconvenienced by the crowds, even though "it's not unusual for us to have 90 to 100 people down there in addition to member traffic coming into the branch." The church next door serves as overflow parking space.
Despite the inflammatory rhetoric that has characterized this election season, Altra representatives aren't expecting trouble once voting starts. Each polling place has non-partisan election staff to handle security, working closely with city hall and the police. "From what I understand, there will be some police presence at polling places, however the police can't be within 100 feet of a polling place because that has been used as voter intimidation in the past," said Lloyd Neill.
Regardless, Altra officials are expecting robust turnout as the 2016 campaign finally comes to a close.
"Wisconsin is a very civic-minded state and we have very high turnout in all general elections," she said. "In early voting, so far Wisconsin has shattered records – about 150,000 more people have voted early this year than in previous years because people don't want to wait in line. So I would anticipate it will be on-par, if not a little bit more, than previous years."
Weather over Politics
Flasher Community CU in Flasher, N.D. is also expecting high turnout, though at 227 residents, Flasher's total population is less than one percent of that of La Crosse, Wisc.
CEO Darla Schafer told Credit Union Journal she expects 100 to 200 people to turn up at the $11 million-asset credit union to vote – though voting begins before the credit union opens its doors and continues for a few hours past closing, so even at its height, she said, it will probably just be a steady trickle.
"We have a chiropractor who rents office space in our building and she'll probably have more people waiting for her than we'll have waiting in line to cast ballots," she said. "It usually doesn't impact our business at all."
Nor is Schafer expecting the vote to bring much excitement.
"We talk about the weather more than anything – it's a lot safer issue" than politics, she said of the small farming community located about 45 miles outside of Bismarck.
"I don't think we've seen the nastiness that's been in the national politics here in our rural communities," she noted. "Most of the conversation you hear is just that we're tired of the advertisements. Let's get it over with and we'll deal with on Wednesday morning, whatever it may be."
She added: "A lot of people are saying we're fortunate to be close to Canada so that we can leave the country easily if we have to."
More than Just a Community Service
This will be the first election in which University of Iowa Community CU has served as a polling place, and SVP of Operations Dick Noble said the credit union is expecting several hundred people to turn out throughout the course of the day. He said the facility is set up in a way that members may not even know voting is taking place, since the voting space in the cafeteria is clearly separated from the rest of the branch space.
Not only does hosting a polling place provide a good public service, he said, but it also gives the institution an opportunity to introduce itself to non-members who may not be familiar with the credit union.
"We're expecting a lot of non-members," he said. "It's a chance for people to see the new building, and for a lot of them it may be their first time here where they didn't vote in smaller elections. I'm sure it'll draw a lot of people out for this."
Others, however, said the chances of gaining new business after ballots are cast were slim.
"We don't interact with voters," said Altra CU's Lloyd Neill. "We' can't do it. We can't be sending people up and down the line saying 'Hey, do you want to open a checking account?'"
She noted that "there's a general sense that once you've been inside a building, you're more comfortable entering it," but growing membership this way "certainly isn't our goal of being a polling place. We do it because it's the right thing to do."
For Darla Schafer of Flasher Community CU, hosting voters is just another part of getting the credit union ingrained in the fabric of the community.
"We're pretty visible anyway, but it helps to show that we're community-minded and we're open to differing opinions and serving all people in our community," she said. "I think that's a positive or us. It shows that people can come in here and see our business and what we're doing."
