DALTON, Ga. — Some Whitfield County voters could see their polling places change, but not until 2019.

The Whitfield County registrar’s office is looking at closing up to three precincts and merging them with nearby precincts. No official decision has been made, and Registrar Mary Hammontree says there will be plenty of advance advertising and public meetings before any changes are made.

But right now, the elections office is considering the following changes:

• Precinct 3A, which votes in the Dalton-Whitfield Senior Center, would be merged into Precinct 1A, which votes in Dalton City Hall. Voters would vote at City Hall.

• In the southern end of Whitfield County, the Tilton Precinct, which votes in the Tilton Community Center, would be merged with the Carbondale Precinct, which votes in the Carbondale Clubhouse. It hasn’t been decided which location voters would vote at.

• And in the northern part of the county, the Upper Tenth Precinct, which votes in the Upper Tenth County Building, would merge with the Lower Tenth Precinct, which votes at Beaverdale Elementary School. Voters would vote at the school.

Whitfield County currently has 23 precincts.

“This is just in the discussion phase right now. We have just started talking about it,” said Hammontree.

She says closing the precincts could save $11,600 in a gubernatorial election year and $17,400 in a presidential election year. In addition to a primary and a general election, the presidential election year also has a presidential primary.

Hammontree says the three precincts are being targeted because they are among the county’s smallest in terms of turnout. In last year’s presidential election, 29,084 county residents voted. Some 561 people voted on Election Day in 3A, 395 people voted on Election Day in the Upper Tenth and 303 voted on Election Day in Tilton.

Hammontree said part of that is because advance voting is growing in popularity. In the 2016 presidential election, 43 percent of all votes in the county were cast during advance voting.

Counties across Georgia have been cutting the number of precincts during the last couple of years, with elections officials usually citing cost savings as the reason. The League of Women Voters has often opposed those closings.

“We do have concerns whenever polling places are closed,” said Helen Crawford, president of the League of Women Voters of the Dalton Area. “But from my personal experience, Mary Hammontree and the Whitfield County elections office have always been upfront and transparent. I guess we would just like to learn more about the plan.”

Dalton resident Fred Kyle said he, too, would like to learn more about the proposal. But he said at first glance it seems reasonable.

“None of the places you are talking about are more than a few miles from where they would move the voters. I doubt that the senior center is even a mile from City Hall, so it should not be too inconvenient,” he said.

Dianne Putnam, chairman of the Whitfield County Republican Party, says she thinks the propoal “would probably make sense.”

“Twenty-three precincts for a county our size (about 105,000 population) seems a little large,” she said. “Except for presidential elections and maybe some local elections where you have a large number of candidates you usually don’t have to stand in line.”