Going to court: Elections office proposes changes to voting precincts in seven townships
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated from a previous version to add new information.
To meet Pennsylvania legal requirements that voting precincts have no more than 1,200 registered voters, the Washington County elections office plans to ask for court approval of a plan to alter boundaries. According to the proposal, Cecil Township would have eight polling places instead of six. North Strabane Township would have nine precincts instead of six.
Canton Township would have one fewer polling place as Districts 1 and 3 are combined to form a new District 1.
The boundaries within Amwell, Donegal and Mt. Pleasant townships would be redrawn, and South Strabane Township’s districts would be changed. Donegal would have two districts, instead of three. Wesley Parry, assistant director of the Washington County elections office, brought proposed maps and a draft of the court petition to a meeting of the county elections board, composed of county commissioners, Tuesday morning.
“We’re required to post these in the precincts, but it’s such a throwback to a bygone era,” said Parry, who intends to fulfill the requirements of the law as best he can.
President Judge Katherine B. Emery has scheduled a hearing on Washington County’s election precinct redistricting for 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27 in Courtroom No. 1.
County Solicitor Mary Lyn Drewitz presented the motion on behalf of the county election board, which is composed of the county commissioners, in motions court Wednesday morning. She is seeking public input on the proposal to re-draw precinct boundaries in several townships.
In 2016, the county entered into a $12,000 contract with geodemographic consulting firm BonData, based in Hummelstown, Dauphin County, to determine voter registration by census block and then draw new voting districts using computer software more sophisticated that what was available in the elections office. Increasing North Strabane Township’s six precincts was one of the topics under discussion, but no changes were made before the presidential election, and North Strabane voters waited in long lines Nov. 8. Its First Precinct has 2,732 registered voters, while Precinct 4 has 1,530, Precinct 5 has 2,228 and Precinct 6 has 2,591.
Precincts have a 1,200-voter threshold to keep people from waiting in long lines or possibly forsaking their civic duty because they can’t spend an inordinate amount of time in line.
Populations have grown as former farmland has given way to housing developments, especially in Cecil, where Precinct 5 has 2,892 registered voters, and in North Strabane.