Lycoming County commissioners approved election matters including a grant application to the state and, separately, focusing on voters in rural Jackson Township.

Forrest Lehman, county director of elections and registration, asked commissioners for their consideration to approve the application for the Election Integrity Grant

Program funds for the 2025-2026 grant cycle in the amount of $373,818.65. “The amount is based on our percentage of the state’s registered voters, so we get a piece of a $45 million pie,” Lehman said.

The application must be submitted by Aug. 15. After approval, Mya Toon, county director of financial management, sends it to the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Then, the funds are deposited by Sept. 1.

In another agreement approved, an Americans with Disabilities ADA Construction

Agreement with Jackson Township was approved in the amount of $51,058.07.

This is a 2025 approved

budgeted item and relates to the county’s settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The agreement is to reimburse the township for its expenditures to make the township building suitable for voting.

This agreement would reimburse the township for some expenditures already made and for additional expenditures they are making over the summer after the county architect inspects the work and makes sure everything looks good.

The township is a place in the county where there is no other viable option other than the township building because it is a rural area, Lehman explained.

The township building is an old one room schoolhouse.

“They are starting from a rough place as far as getting it up to speed,” he said. “It needs ramps, parking, entrance redone the whole nine yards and when we went into this project countrywide a couple years ago, we knew there were going to be a handful of sites like this that end up being more expensive and, unfortunately, Jackson is one of them.”

Some locations requiring updates have cost very little, he noted.

“Most of them come in a couple thousand dollars but Jackson is going to be more. But our obligation to the U.S. DOJ is to make every one of these sites accessible,” Lehman said.

The good part of this is that the board of elections under the election code always has the right to use municipal buildings and schools as polling places, he said.

The investment being made is expected to benefit the county in perpetuity.