Voters in some Clarion County precincts will notice a change in the process for the primary election. “There will be some new ways of lining up the voters at the larger precincts to get the voting done quicker,” said Clarion County Commissioner Wayne Brosius, a member of the county’s Election Board, April 9. “Voters will be processed alphabetically rather than on a first come, first served basis. The first time we will be doing this is during the primary election.”
Brosius said the county is testing the new process in anticipation of a heavy voter turnout in the general election. “There could be longer lines especially looking ahead to November,” he said. “We do have some local races in the primary election that could have an impact on voter turnout, notably the race to replace Donna Oberlander for the 63rd Pennsylvania House seat.”
There are four Republican candidates on the primary ballot for the 63rd District seat, Josh Bashline, Clay Kennermuth, Lisa Kerle and Darlene Smail. The lone Democratic candidate is Pat Ritchie.
As of Wednesday, April 10 there are 23,504 registered voters in Clarion County, an increase of 504 voters from the 23,000 voters in October 2023. Interim Director of Elections Cindy Callihan said there were few more registrations to be added to the total but not many.
Callihan said she did not foresee many write-in votes unless it was for party committee positions.
The balance of the voters in Clarion County were divided between 30 political variations including 329 Independents, 107 Libertarians, 1,964 with no affiliation and 108 voters who registered as “other.”
The request for mail-in ballots has increased. “Right now we have had requests for about 1,500 absentee and mail-in ballots,” said Elections and Voter Registration Coordinator Laura O’Neil. “It is more requests than we had last year. It has not surpassed last year at this time but it is on a trajectory to do so.” Voters who request a mail-in ballot for the primary will receive a mail-in ballot for the general election if requested. Callihan said the ballots have already been mailed and should be returning to the county soon.
One thing has not changed. “We always need poll workers,” said Callihan. “We like to add a few poll workers in the larger locations so we can get them trained in advance in case we would have vacancies in other precincts.” Anyone interested in being a poll worker should contact the Clarion County Elections Department.
There are two changes in voting precincts. Hawthorn Borough voters will now vote at the Hawthorn Fire Hall, 3891 Main St., Hawthorn and Monroe Township voters will now vote at the Zion Church, 114 Zion Road, Clarion.
Primary election day is April 23.