Officials to consolidate several voting precincts

The county is still undecided on what voting system to use.
By VIRGINIA ROSS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County officials said they will start working on consolidating several voting precincts throughout the county.
Commissioners planned to discuss the move at their weekly caucus today.
Essentially, the county is looking to decrease the cost of making its polling sites accessible to people with disabilities by eliminating several precincts.
"It's just a more practical way of doing things," said Dan Vogler, commissioner chairman. "If we combine some of the smaller precincts, we'll be able to move ahead by making the remaining precincts more accessible to everyone."
In order for the county to secure its receipt of nearly $1 million in federal aid, commissioners had to agree to comply with the Help America Vote Act, a measure that provides individuals with disabilities an opportunity to vote at the polls.
The county has 106 voting precincts, most of which are not accessible to people who have disabilities.
An elections advisory committee, set up by the county elections department earlier this year, has been studying the matter for several months.
The committee met Wednesday and discussed the consolidation effort.
Meanwhile, commissioners, at their Tuesday meeting, adopted a resolution that obligates the county to comply with the act.
By doing so, the county was able to secure itself more time to have a new system in place.
New deadline for system
The county was to have identified a voting system that can be used by individuals with disabilities and be in the process of buying that system by Dec. 31, or be working toward that goal. But that deadline has been extended to the end of February.
County officials have said they are working toward making the polling sites accessible to everyone, but they are not close to making a decision on which system to use.
The new system must be state approved.
The county has used an optical scan system for more than 20 years. Marlene Gabriel, county elections director, said the county has spent the last year looking at new machines and voting methods and has considered buying a touch-screen voting system.
But county officials are concerned that such a system might not provide them with the paper trail the current system provides.
The county is looking to invite various vendors to a public meeting early next year to allow officials and residents to have a closer look at several voting systems.
"This is the time to do something we've talked about for quite a while," Vogler said. "We want to see which precincts can be combined, and then hopefully bring the vendors here so we can have a closer look at the voting systems available."