Plan to merge precincts in Pa. awaits OK

A committee followed state guidelines in reforming the precincts.

STAFF REPORT

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Voters in New Castle and Ellwood City will see precincts merged by May if a consolidation proposal is approved.

The Lawrence County Board of Elections voted last week in favor of the proposal, which calls for eliminating 26 of the county’s 106 precincts, all of them in New Castle and Ellwood.

New Castle would see its 42 precincts consolidated into 18, and Ellwood would see its nine precincts consolidated into seven.

The proposal must be approved by Jan. 31 if it is to go into effect in May, said J.D. Hardester, a board of elections member who served on a committee that worked on the consolidation plan.

Each precinct will elect a judge of elections in May, which is why the board wants the change in place by then, Hardester said.

The consolidation committee used state guidelines to keep between 600 and 1,200 people in each precinct, Hardester said.

The elections board now has to submit the proposal to the county common pleas court, he said. After it gets court approval, it will be posted in each precinct for 10 days. If there are no complaints, a judge will finalize the plan, Hardester said.

At the same time, the plan will be submitted to the state for its approval, he said.

Hardester said dwindling population is not the only reason for merging precincts.

He said that as older poll workers retire, there aren’t as many people willing to step into their jobs.

He said too that the Census divides cities and towns into sections, and precincts have to follow those boundary lines. Some did not.

Hardester said he can’t be specific right now about the new precinct boundaries, because they have not yet been approved by the county’s solicitor.