SHENANGO VALLEY Key voting precincts to get extra machines

Anticipated heavy voting on a consolidation issue prompted the move.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- Key voting precincts in both Sharon and Hermitage will be getting extra touch-screen voting units on Election Day.
James Bennington, Mercer County's director of elections, said the county election board is concerned that extremely heavy voting in the Shenango Valley as a result of a consolidation referendum on the ballot may be more than the normal allocation of voting machines can handle.
Voters in Sharon, Hermitage, Farrell, Sharpsville and Wheatland will be voting on the referendum.
Bennington said Friday that three precincts in Hermitage and two in Sharon will each get one extra machine to handle the anticipated flow of voters. All but one of those precincts normally have just two machines.
Getting the extra machines will be Sharon 4-3 at the Educational Service Center on Forker Boulevard; Sharon 2-2 at the North Sharon Fire Hall on Thornton Avenue; Hermitage S-W 2 at Kennedy Catholic High School on the Shenango Valley Freeway; Hermitage S-W 1 at Holy Trinity Church on Morefield Road; and Hermitage N-E 1, which normally has three machines, at the Hermitage city building on Pa. Route 18.
Machines moved
The election board also authorized taking one machine from a precinct in Greenville and another from the single precinct in Clark to meet the need for extra machines in the Shenango Valley, Bennington said.
Mercer County has 250 of the electronic touch-screen units and 100 precincts. There are normally eight held in reserve on Election Day, but Bennington said only four or five will be held back on Tuesday.
Machine technicians who travel the county during the course of the day to troubleshoot machine problems will each have a spare unit they can plug in within minutes to replace a malfunctioning unit, he said.
Purchases
The county bought the 250 units for $900,000 in 2001, purchasing the minimum number needed with the intent of buying a few more each year, Bennington said.
Those additional purchases, however, have never been made and the county still has only the original 250 units.
Bennington said he expects a voter turnout of at least 80 percent of the county's registered 76,000 voters.
The county does expect to get 100 new touch-screen units in time for the spring 2005 primary.
Funds for the purchase are available through the federal Help America Vote Act, which channels money through the states.
The new units can function as regular touch-screen systems but also have an audio capability and special keys that can be used by blind or visually impaired voters.
The county has applied for funding to buy the units, which cost $3,200 each, Bennington said.