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Lycoming County polling places soon to receive $375 increase in payment

Polling sites in the county will receive $500 a year for allowing voters to use their facilities to cast their ballots after the Lycoming County commissioners voted to raise the amount that has been in place for at least 10 years.

The increased payment had already been discussed and approved by the Board of Elections. It then went before the commissioners for final approval.

"It has been at the current rate of $125 per year as long as I have been here," said Forrest Lehman, director of Voter Services. "I don't know how much further back it goes, so we're talking about 10 years or more, which is a long time to stay at the rate that it is."

Lehman had previously advocated for raising the compensation for poll workers.

"The other part of the equation that we are finally circling back around to are the facilities because we absolutely need them as well," he said.

"These are fantastic places where people go to vote. They're fire halls, township buildings, other institutions, civic organizations all over the map. They welcome us in. They let our voters in and our poll workers, so that democracy can play out twice a year," Lehman said.

The increase will be funded through Act 88, the Pennsylvania Election Code, funds.

Following approval of the increase in compensation, Commissioner Rick Mirabito brought up the issues now facing the county concerning the accessibility of polling places.

The federal Department of Justice has told the county that some polling sites are not ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliant. Recently school districts have been approached to see if the polling sites could be relocated to their facilities, but this has been met with resistance in some cases.

Although the DOJ only looked at some of the sites, Lehman indicated that "ultimately they are going to ask us to look at everything."

"The Department of Justice goes around and makes sure that people actually can go vote because they have access," Mirabito said. "If I'm in a wheelchair and the only way to get into the place to vote is through steps, I don't really have access to vote."

Segueing from that issue, Mirabito addressed the 2020 election ballot recount that was recently approved.

"It's going to take time, it's going to take attention of this office and the people who work in this office and I'm not sure that's a prudent use of our time. Frankly I'm concerned because these polling places' issues are complicated," he said.

Referring to those issues, Mirabito said, "That is a serious action because if we don't respond and do what is expected...I imagine the Department of Justice could act as a receiver and come in and say if you're not capable of doing it, we're gonna do it and we'll send you the bill at the end of the day," he stated.

"And that could be very, very expensive. I'm talking about $5, $6 million, so I just hope that we will think about it and weigh the wisdom of doing one thing versus doing something else," he added.

Attending the meeting by phone, Commissioner Tony Mussare questioned whether mail-in ballots could be considered a viable solution if a voter's polling site is not compliant. The county solicitor J. David Smith said that would not "supplant the need to have accessible polling places."

Both Mussare and Commissioner Scott Metzger defended the vote that was taken by the Election Board to recount some of the 2020 ballots, citing a need for voter integrity.

"We have people believing that the tabulators don't match the ballots in this county. We need to put that to bed to show them once and for all -- the tabulators match the ballots," Metzger stated.

Mirabito brought the discussion back to the possible expense the county is facing if they don't comply with the DOJ action.

"All I'm saying is that we've got a Department of Justice case going on that potentially could cost the taxpayers $6 million and we also have people who want us to recount by hand every ballot from the 2020 election," Mirabito reiterated.

"All I'm suggesting is that before we get sidetracked with that -- and I'm not minimizing the people or their concerns...if the taxpayers end up getting slapped with a $6 million bill because we don't have the time to do what we need to do to comply with the Department of Justice, we are going to have a lot of unhappy taxpayers," Mirabito said.