90 from county inducted into Voter Hall of Fame
BUTLER TWP — Ninety Butler County voters were honored Tuesday, Aug. 22, for their 50-year commitment to democracy by being inducted into the state’s Voter Hall of Fame.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt was joined by elected county and state officials at Highfield Community Center to recognize voters who have voted in 50 consecutive general elections.
About half of the 90 honored voters, who include 12 married couples, seven poll workers and former county election bureau director Regis Young, attended the induction ceremony.
“A half-century of voting is a long time, and it’s a huge commitment,” Schmidt said.
During those 50 years, those inducted Tuesday voted in 12 presidential elections and dozens of state and municipal elections regardless of bad weather, illness and other inconveniences that could have kept them from the polls, he said.
He called the inductees “role models of civic engagement.”
Among the inductees were Patricia and Thomas Whitesell of Butler Township. Patricia has been a poll worker for about 40 years and is judge of elections in the Butler Township 3 precinct that votes at the North Main Street Church of God. She said she is retiring when her elected term ends in two years.
“I started as a clerk, then inspector, then judge of elections,” Patricia said.
Election days are long days filled with a lot of work, but she said she enjoys seeing neighbors and friends at the poll.
Patricia is one of many poll workers Young knows and worked with when he led the county election bureau from 1988 to 2010.
The punch card voting system that was in place when Young started remains his favorite method of voting.
“The punch card system was a great system. We had few problems. We kept the machines clean,” Young said.
Punch cards were used until 1996, when the county changed to touch-screen voting, he said. Voters would touch a computer screen to cast votes for candidates on the ballot.
The election bureau consisted of Young and two registrars when he was the director, and he organized polls and poll workers.
“Every election, I had to train 500 people,” Young said.
He said he testified in 10 or 12 county and state court proceedings involving challenges or disputes raised by candidates.
“It was a very interesting job. Controversy didn’t bother me,” Young said. “But Election Day was tough.”
He said he would worry all day about how the election was running and then breath a sigh of relief after the polls closed.
In addition, Young said he served on two state and two federal election commissions and was the first county election bureau director to receive certification as an election and registration administrator.
“I met every election official from the U.S. and the territories,” Young said.
Before the ceremony, Butler County had 1,020 voters in the Hall of Fame, which was established more than 40 years ago and is administered by the Department of State’s Election Bureau. The county ranks among the top counties in the state for the number of inductees, Schmidt said. About 24,000 people across the state are members of the Hall of Fame, he added.
“Your example you’re setting for the rest of the county is amazing,” said Leslie Osche, chairwoman of the county commissioners.
Commissioner Kim Geyer commended the inductees and cited her two-vote margin of victory in winning her first Republican Party nomination in 2015 as an example of why every vote counts.
“The trajectory of the county and country can change with one vote,” Geyer said.
Commissioner Kevin Boozel said the commissioners learn something from voters in each election.
“Your vote is your voice,” Boozel said.
Dave Zarnick, Butler Township commissioners’ president, said he was proud to attend the ceremony.
“It was an honor to be here among these 50-year voters,” Zarnick said.
