Precinct consolidation plan stalled
A sweeping precinct-consolidation plan by the director of the Fayette County election bureau stalled Tuesday when the Fayette County commissioners requested additional information. Laurie Lint proposed consolidation of 13 precincts prior to the Nov. 6 election, dropping the number in the county from 103 to 90. The discussion arose at the commissioners’ agenda meeting, when a vote was approved to table the proposal.
In total, Lint was seeking changes for precincts in the townships of Dunbar, German, Jefferson, Luzerne, Nicholson, North Union, Perry and Washington; Masontown Borough and the city of Uniontown.
Lint said any changes are needed by September. She said the largest amount of work would involve redistricting all three precincts in Masontown, which would require court approval.
“I want to get things moving with 13 different precincts,” Lint said.
Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites said the proposed changes should be looked at individually.
“I want to make sure we don’t disenfranchise voters, and if they have to drive several miles to vote, we might do that,” Vicites said.
Although Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink had notified Lint she was in favor of the proposed changes, Zimmerlink said she is only in favor of the changes if the local and election officials agree with them.
The first poll change Lint sought was to move the voting site for Dunbar Precinct 1 from the Dunbar Borough School to the Fayette County Fairgrounds. Lint said she placed the item on the agenda after the school board voted to close the school for the upcoming school year. Since that time, the decision has been reversed and the proposed change is a moot point.
Vicites said he thought voting in schools was encouraged.
Commission Chairman Vincent Zapotosky said he believes a lot more follow-up is needed, and he was hesitant to approve any changes now.
Zimmerlink suggested that first they look at combining precincts and if redistricting is needed and a public meeting is needed, there is that option also.
Lint said she would make contact with all the local officials who are potentially affected to seek direction prior to taking action.
Included among Lint’s proposal is combining Dunbar’s 2nd and 3rd precincts and moving out of the Lolly Rosensteel residence and voting at Devito Park; combining German Township’s 2nd, 6th and 7th precincts and moving out of Wonder’s Machine Shop and Adah fire hall and voting at the municipal building and combining German Township’s 4th and 5th precincts and moving out of the Ronco fire hall and voting at the American Legion post.
Also, she proposes combining Jefferson Township’s 1st and 2nd precincts and moving out of the Grindstone social hall and voting at the township building.
Lint is proposing joining Luzerne Township’s 1st and 3rd precincts and moving out of Isabella volunteer fire department and voting at the township building; combining Luzerne Township’s 4th and 6th precincts into one precinct and moving out of the Harvey McClelland garage to the LaBelle volunteer fire department.
For Masontown, Lint wants to redistrict all three precincts and move out of Fort Mason Village and vote at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post and Masontown volunteer fire department.
For Nicholson Township, the proposal calls for combining Nicholson’s 2nd and 3rd precincts and moving out of Andy Matejcik garage and voting at Wilma Rhodes garage.
For voters at North Union Township Precinct 4, the polling place must be moved from the township building due to road and bridge construction.
The plan for Perry Township’s 1st and 4th precincts includes combining them and moving out of the post office, which Lint said is not accessible and cannot be made accessible and voting at Doemling garage.
For Uniontown, the plan is to combine Uniontown’s 4th and 5th precincts and to move out of the civil defense center and to vote at Uniontown Area Senior High School.
Washington Township changes include combining the 2nd and 4th precincts, which already vote in the same building, Lint said.
Lint suggested possibly moving voting for Uniontown Precinct 1 from the VFW because of problems at the building. She said the commander has harassed the judge of election and doesn’t want to set up the room or take it down and expects the judge to do all the work instead of the VFW custodian.
Vicites said the changes should be made where it makes sense. He said there used to be 110 precincts and now there are 103.
“We need to realign where it makes sense instead of five miles away,” Vicites said.
Lint also told the commissioners she has plans to send out 25,000 notices to voters as part of a voter purge program prior to the November election. She said the biggest obstacle is having a postage-paid envelope and a bulk rate must be reinstated for the county. Lint said the cost of reinstating the bulk rate would cost $180, but if that were done, it would save $3,000 overall.
Lint said the purge is estimated to cost about $20,000, which includes sending letters that can be sent back in. She said if people vote in the next election they will remain on the rolls, and if they don’t respond and don’t vote, they would be purged.
The commissioners took no action on the request, but Lint said in response to a question from Vicites that the vote could be taken at next month’s meeting to initiate the purge.