Apr 28, 2017 3 min read

With just weeks to go before the May 16 primary, the Washington County Elections Office is seeking at least eight judges of elections.

The precincts lacking a judge, and their locations, are: Amwell Township’s First Precinct, Lone Pine Community Center, 328 Weaver Run Road; Beallsville’s sole precinct, Civic Association; Chartiers Township’s First Precinct, Western Area Career and Technical Center; Donegal Township Precinct 3, municipal building, West Alexander;

East Bethlehem Township Precinct 4, St. Thomas Church, 30 Main St., Clarksville; Peters Township D-2, Faith Community Church, 337 Waterdam Road, McMurray; Washington’s Second Ward, First Precinct, Washington High School; and West Pike Run Township’s Second Precinct, municipal building, Daisytown.

Death and illness among election board members, many of whom are well past retirement age, have reduced the ranks.

“It’s not really that hard of a job,” said Wes Parry, Washington County’s assistant director of elections. “We’ll provide the training, we’ll make sure you know what you need to know, and the rest is common sense.”

Training a judge of elections takes about an hour. On election day, the central elections office will have people in place to handle a phone bank and field questions that may stymie local election boards.

“Call us, and we’ll take care of it,” Parry said. “We have troubleshooters.”

State law calls for precinct-level election boards to have five members: a judge and two inspectors, one from each party, who appoint a clerk.

Finding students willing to serve on election boards was easier in November than during a May primary, Parry has found, because of exams, sports competitions, proms and upcoming graduations. Trinity and Canon-McMillan high schools are sending students to polling places to serve on boards, but most from Chartiers-Houston and Ringgold, for a variety of reasons, aren’t able to participate, he said.

Seeking helpers is a stop-gap measure, and Parry has taken issue with what he sees as an often-archaic arrangement that needs to be updated to accommodate 21st century technological advances, such as allowing people to vote in centers near workplaces rather than where they live.

“We’re forced to conduct an election based on a system that was put in place in the 1800s and reconfigured in 1937,” he said.

Judges and inspectors of elections are on the ballot this year, but in the 528 ballot positions of this type across the county, the elections office received only 58 nominating petitions, about 11 percent of the total number of slots. Parry said he wouldn’t be surprised if this was the lowest total in the state.

All Washington County local election board members are paid $130 for a full day of work, but the person returning voting machines, memory cards and other materials to the county office building on election night for tabulation receives an additional $20 plus mileage. Any election board worker serving outside of his or her home community will be paid for mileage when traveling to and from a polling assignment.

Polling places open at 7 a.m., and it’s up to the judge of elections to decide if the board will set up the polling place the night before or the morning of an election. The 8 p.m. closing time results in a 13-hour workday.

No polling places have changed since the November election, and consolidation of some precincts and the addition of others in growing municipalities won’t take effect until the November election.

Anyone who is interested in serving as a judge of elections or in another capacity at an election board experiencing a vacancy can call the Washington County Elections Office at 724-228-6750.