With discussions on the future of our democracy being a prime topic this week, one area county is moving ahead with upgrading its election office.
Gary Sinderson explains.
Whether its due to the pandemic,or other issues in recent elections in Centre County, mail in voting has increased substantially,with thousand of new applications for mail in ballots.
The county is now creating a position for a coordinator for the vote by mail system.
The change in voting priorities has led to additional, temporary staffers already being brought in during elections
“We will need temporary employees,just by the sheer volume. I don’t think that will ever be eliminated”
The mail in ballot increase has also resulted in the county needing more space to process and count ballots.
This year with a Governor and U.S. Senate election among the races in Pennsylvania the county expects to continue using temporary, vote count facilities
“Especially for the 2022 election.it is going to be a much larger scale than the municipal election.right here in the Willowbank Building we just don’t have a large enough facility to
process those vote by mail ballots”
In last Novembers general election in Centre County, close to a third of the votes cast were through either mail in, or absentee ballots.
