Lack of new voting maps may affect primary elections
The glacial pace at which the state’s legislative reapportionment is moving may cause some issues with the upcoming 2022 primary election, Butler County commissioners warned Wednesday.
Pennsylvania’s redistricting requires the assent of both houses of the General Assembly and of the governor, but currently the three parties cannot come to an agreement for either the U.S. House of Representatives or the state House or Senate maps.
One potential issue should the state not have new maps, the commissioners said, is the lack of clarity over whether the current legislative maps still apply.
“Sometimes what happens is, they’ll keep the old maps; if the election comes up against it, the timeline, they’ll proceed with new maps at a later point in time,” Commissioner Kim Geyer said. “We have no idea of what the outcome is yet (of reapportionment), so we’re kind of at the mercy of the state legislature and the governor in making those determinations.”
Commissioner Kevin Boozel added the process is different between the U.S. House map and the state legislature maps.
“The congressional map, my understanding is, it can’t be held over; it has to be developed,” he said.
Veronica Degreffenreid, the acting secretary of the state, said in a Dec. 21 letter to legislators that the date by which the Pennsylvania state department needs “a final map to be effective” is Jan. 24. Should the state not have passed a new map by then, Degraffenreid wrote, deadlines for nominations of candidates will be affected.
The commissioners on Wednesday echoed Degraffenreid’s worries.
“Candidates who want to run for public office, they have to circulate nominating petitions and gather signatures," Geyer said.
These deadlines are set by law and are inflexible, according to the acting secretary’s December letter, which is exacerbated by counties’ needs for three weeks of lead time prior to the circulation of nomination petitions. The lead time allows counties to properly update voters’ registration files to reflect the new districts.
Additionally, new maps being delayed could affect which candidates plan to run given the lack of information about the districts in which they live.
Boozel said the county has some expectations for how this will change, but information at the moment is sparse and ever-changing.
“Two things we expect will happen when it goes to court: No. 1, I expect, the election timeline will change, along with, possibly, (the time for) gathering signatures may be shortened,” Boozel said.
Butler County will meet with the state department Monday, according to Boozel, “and hopefully (will) get some better clarification on what their intentions are moving forward.”
The county government also was told of potential changes to polling places it will be asked to consider in February.
H. William White III, who serves as the county’s solicitor, told commissioners they will be asked to move between three and five voting locations.
“The commissioners, as the sitting Board of Elections, are required, prior to every election, to examine the polling locations to determine whether or not they’re sufficient for the needs,” White said. “Perhaps, as many as five, probably as few as three, have been identified as possibly needing to be relocated or modified in some regard or another.”
White did not identify which locations may be moved, nor did he say where the sites may be moved to.
Commissioners will consider the polling place moves at their Feb. 2 meeting.
