Judge OKs consolidation of voting districts

STAFF REPORT

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A judge in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court has approved a plan to consolidate voting districts in New Castle and Ellwood City.

President Judge Dominick Motto approved the consolidation plan.

The information and the required court order were sent to the state, which also has to approve the plan, said elections board member J.R. Hardester.

Hardester said the state already had given preliminary approval. He does not know when the county will get the official word that the plan is approved. The next step is designating sites for polling places, he said Tuesday.

Under the plan, New Castle’s 42 precincts will be merged into 18. Ellwood City will see its nine precincts merged into seven.

Dwindling population, a lack of poll workers and boundary lines that don’t follow U.S. Census divisions are reasons why the county wants the change, Hardester said.

A plan to consolidate by May before new election judges are in place is scrapped now in favor of consolidating by January 2010, he said.

New elections judges will serve four-year terms. They’ll run based on the current precincts, he said. When the consolidation occurs, a judge will decide who gets the new precincts, he said.