Precinct Map Lamination Task Force Declares Victory After 214 Maps Sealed in Gloss

MAPLE COUNTY — The Precinct Map Lamination Task Force declared victory Thursday after sealing its 214th and final precinct map in glossy laminate, concluding a six-week campaign that task force leader Gary Lund described as the most satisfying work of his municipal career.

The task force was formed after the 2024 election, when a coffee spill at Precinct 7 rendered its wall map illegible and poll workers spent 40 minutes directing voters using what Lund called interpretive gestures. The county board authorized $900 for a commercial laminator, pouches, and what the requisition form listed as morale pastries.

Each map — showing precinct boundaries, polling place locations, and the all-important you are here star — was trimmed, fed through the laminator at precisely 300 degrees, and inspected for bubbles, a quality-control step Lund performed personally, holding each map to the light like a jeweler with a diamond.

We had a bubble incident on map 112, Lund said. A single air pocket, right over the Henderson township line. I peeled it, re-ran it, and it came out perfect. That is the kind of redemption this work offers. The task force minutes record a round of applause.

The laminated maps have been distributed to all precincts, where they hang in protective frames purchased with leftover funds. Poll workers report the maps are beautiful, wipeable, and — in the words of one Precinct 3 volunteer — weirdly calming to look at during slow periods.

The task force’s success has inspired imitation. The Yard Sign Placement Enforcement Bureau has inquired about laminating its setback diagrams. The I Voted Sticker Design Board asked whether lamination could preserve the 2019 commemorative sticker, a request Lund declined on the grounds that some things must be allowed to fade.

With its mission complete, the task force voted to disband, but not before laminating its own final report — all eight pages, double-sided — and presenting it to the county board in a ceremony Lund described as emotional. The board accepted the report and, in a surprise motion, voted to keep the laminator, which now resides in the elections office supply room.

Lund says he will miss the work. There is something about taking a paper map and making it permanent, he said, running a hand over map 214. Rain cannot hurt it now. Coffee cannot hurt it. Time itself will have to try harder. He then turned off the laminator, which beeped twice, a sound the task force has agreed to remember fondly.