LEWISTON – Councilors defended a decision to pull Ward 4’s voters out of the Hillview Community Center for November’s presidential election, but said they’d consider creating a special voter shuttle for the day.

Members of the Androscoggin County Democrats criticized the city for moving the polling place, saying they were disenfranchising Lewiston voters.

“The city needs to make it easier for people to vote,” said Will Fessenden, chairman of the county Democrats. “What you’ve done makes it harder.”

The City Council voted to move the Ward 4 polling place out of the Hillview Community Center in July, just after the June 10 primary. Ward 4’s voters will go to the Multi-Purpose Center to vote, joining voters from Wards 5 and 7.

Councilors and Mayor Larry Gilbert said they made the move for safety. Ward 4 has 3,414 registered voters and the streets at Hillview cannot handle that kind of traffic.

“I’ve been out there for several occasions over the last few years, and I’ve had to stop children numerous times,” Gilbert said. The community center is surrounded by apartments that are home to many young children and they are not used to heavy traffic.

“We made this choice because of the number of voters that are expected in this election and because it’s in November, when it starts getting dark by 4 p.m,” Gilbert said. “But the children don’t stop playing at 4 p.m. The combination, I think, could be a real tragedy.”

Mike Lajoie, the Democratic candidate for state House District 71, applauded the move. He said he saw similar problems at Hillview during June’s primary voting.

“I saw the mayor pull kids out of the street, and I even pulled a few myself,” Lajoie said. “I don’t disagree. I think it was the right move.”

But he suggested councilors consider running some sort of shuttle.

City Administrator Jim Bennett said he would present a plan for a shuttle at the council’s Oct. 21 meeting. The shuttle would pick up passengers at the city’s Oak Street bus station and take them to the Multi-Purpose Center to vote.

Councilor Tina Bailey said it is important.

“It’s become a huge concern, and I’ve gotten several phone calls from people who don’t know how they’ll get to the Multi-Purpose Center. I just want to make sure we have some sort of shuttle for those people, at least.”

This November, all voters will go to one of four places to vote:

• Voters in Wards 1 and 3 will go to the Lewiston Memorial Armory, 65 Central Ave.

• Voters in Ward 2 will go to Montello Elementary School, 407 East Ave.

• Voters in Wards 4, 5 and 7 will go to the Multi-Purpose Center, 145 Birch St.

• Voters in Ward 6 will go to the Elks Lodge, 1675 Lisbon Road.