With the state Legislature appearing to consider appealing the state Supreme Court’s decision to redistrict Pennsylvania, continued delays may cause logistical problems for upcoming elections, Forrest K. Lehman, director of Lycoming County Voter Services, told the commissioners during a Board of Elections meeting Tuesday.

Lehman said the petition period for Congress already has been delayed by two weeks.

“If there is any additional litigation or anything, our hope is just that they resolve it as soon as possible,” he said. “We want a quick resolution because we have to do all this work to put the right race on the ballot. There is not much elasticity left in the election calendar for further delays.”

Lehman explained that counties typically are unable to adapt well to changes that take place within 30 to 35 days of an election. Machines have to be programmed, ballots finalized, absentee ballots sent out and more, he said.

What counties do next is up to the secretary of the commonwealth and state Supreme Court, but “there may not be much time to push that back further before you’re talking about delaying the primary,” Lehman said.

If there is a delay, it “may or may not cost money. But it will be, at the very least, a logistical problem,” he added.

The state’s 67 counties have arrangements with a total of more than 9,000 facilities to use for polling, and polling facilities know years in advance when elections will be because dates are “spelled out in the law,” Lehman said.

But, if primaries get delayed by a month, are counties going to be able to book those facilities? Are poll workers still going to be able to volunteer?

“These are the kinds of questions and problems that county election officials face that the governor doesn’t think about, the Legislature doesn’t think about, the courts don’t think about,” Lehman said. “They care about issues that are obviously important, but they don’t always think about how all that rolls downhill and affects the counties that have to turn these directives into concrete actions.

“We’re all holding our breath,” he said.

In another matter, the board voted to designate the STEP RiverWalk Center, 423 E. Central Ave., as the polling place for South Williamsport’s 1st Ward in place of the United Methodist Church, 409 Main St.

“It’s really the best facility in the 1st Ward, which is everything east of the highway (Route 15),” Lehman said. “It has a lot of space inside, lots of parking, it’s in a quiet residential area and they have very good accessibility into the facility. We’re very pleased about how that’s going to come together for the voters.”

Lehman said there are about 1,200 voters in the 1st Ward, and about 350 or more of them are aged 65 and older.

“Really, this dovetails very nicely with the audience STEP is trying to reach,” he said. “Maybe the folks who live in the 1st Ward will see the kind of opportunities that are there.”

“And we welcome the opportunity to provide that for the community,” added Fred Shrimp, director of STEP’s Office of Aging.

Shrimp said that the Meals on Wheels program will continue throughout election days with minimal disruption to the polls because the kitchen is separated from the interior of the facility. General programming also will continue as normal except during the few days surrounding elections when things need to be rearranged or cleaned up.

“A few bingo players might be upset, but we can handle that,” Shrimp joked.