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Butler County election officials expect high voter turnout, see poll worker shortage for midterm

BUTLER, Pa. — Voter turnout is expected to be high for Tuesday's midterm election.

Several key races will be decided, including the race for Pennsylvania governor.

As with any election, the outcome will be impacted by voter turnout. While midterm elections usually don’t see a high voter turnout, political experts believe this time will be different.

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Sheri Brewer, the director of the Butler County Elections Bureau, said she's been so busy the last few weeks because of absentee ballots.

"It’s an unusual amount of volume that we’ve had this year compared to other midterm elections," Brewer said.

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In fact, Channel 11 asked her to pull the numbers and even she was surprised to see how they compare to previous midterm elections.

So far, 3,264 absentee ballots have been cast in Butler County. Compare that to 2014 when 1,474 absentee ballots were cast and in 2010, 2,370 people voted by absentee.

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With more people coming to the polls, Brewer needs to make sure her 89 precincts are staffed well and finding poll workers is something she says is getting even more challenging.

"When they started most of them were housewives, and that era of poll workers are getting to the age where physically they’re not able to do it," Brewer said.

Brewer said she has gone as far as the statehouse to address the poll worker shortage.

One of the ideas Brewer told state lawmakers about is a voting center, where you could go to a school, for example, and everyone in the district could vote there.

She says that would decrease the number of poll workers and sites.

 

Cox Media Group

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