Berry High School voting site moves to new location

Some Vestavia Hills and Hoover residents soon will start voting at a new location for Jefferson County, state and national elections.

Now that the Vestavia Hills Board of Education has purchased the former Berry High School campus on Columbiana Road from the Hoover Board of Education and is converting it into a middle school for grades 6-7 and a junior high school for grades 8-9, the Berry site won’t be available for voting.

So the Jefferson County Board of Registrars has moved that polling place to the Shades Mountain Independent Church gymnasium on Tyler Road, said Barry Stephenson, chairman of the Board of Registrars.

That precinct has about 4,400 voters, with about half coming from Vestavia Hills, about half from Hoover and a few voters from unincorporated Jefferson County, Stephenson said.

The change takes effect for the Aug. 15 special election for the U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by Jeff Sessions.

Registered voters who previously were assigned to vote at the former Berry High School campus should have received notices in the mail about the change, Stephenson said.

The Jefferson County Board of Registrars also split the voting precinct that includes Hunter Street Baptist Church on John Hawkins Parkway as a polling place. That precinct had more than 9,000 registered voters, which caused long lines during the 2016 presidential election.

So the county split the precinct in two and will be sending about half the voters there to a new polling place at the new Finley Center at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, Stephenson said.