Years of research and prep went into creation of new polling precincts in Butler County
Some voters in Adams, Cranberry, Connoquenessing, Jackson and Middlesex townships are voting in new locations on Election Day, following the establishment of seven new polling places by the Butler County Bureau of Elections.
Chantell McCurdy, director of the Butler County Bureau of Elections, said election officials hope the August establishment of the new polling precincts helps alleviate long waits for voters. Butler County now has 96 precincts instead of the 89 it had during the previous election.
“The places we grew in the county are where we added the new precincts, and that's based on a lot of feedback we got from voters, judges of elections from the last presidential, when lines were really, really long,” McCurdy said. “We have to stay under a certain threshold of how many voters can be in a newly created precinct; that’s one of the reasons why our larger precincts get split first, because they’re the ones that need it the most.”
McCurdy took part in an interview with the Butler Eagle on Monday, Nov. 6, on Facebook Live, where she discussed the preparations the bureau of elections made to help make the Nov. 7 general election run as smooth as possible.
The new polling locations are the Adams Township Building meeting room and the Treesdale Community Center in Adams Township; Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints and Victory Family Church in Cranberry Township; the Rock Lake Community Center in Jackson Township; the Crossway Community Church in Middlesex Township; and the National Guard Armory in Connoquenessing Township now contains two precincts.
According to McCurdy, the bureau used experience from local poll workers and officials, as well as county and census data to create precincts in places that have gained voters over several years.
“We have a poll worker and precinct coordinator who was really pivotal in this process of being on the ground, talking to the poll workers and finding new locations for us,” McCurdy said. “We worked with mapping and assessment to make sure we had the correct data to help formulate those areas.”
McCurdy also discussed the “Voter 411“ educational seminars the bureau of elections hosted across the county in July and August. She said the sessions helped address questions voters and public officials had regarding elections and Election Day all at once at each of the eight sessions.
“The Voter 411 came about from questions I received from them that they get from their constituents. We started to see similar questions that we get in the office, and get repeatedly,” she said. “We had a lot of great reception from people who showed up.”
Also during the interview, McCurdy said there are about 137,000 registered voters in Butler County. She later said the bureau has about 500 poll workers registered to work Election Day, which is about what the county needs to pull off a successful Election Day.
“We are pretty good for this election, but we could always use more people,” McCurdy said. “If people come up and say they want to be a poll worker next election, we get some information from them so we can get them in our database for the next time.”
Polling locations across Pennsylvania will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.
