UPPER POTTSGROVE >> Officials are looking to change the township’s sole polling place as the result of the high turnout seen in last month’s presidential primary election.
Two poll workers, one constable and the judge of elections petitioned the township commissioners Monday night to move the township’s polling place to Pottsgrove Middle School.
The problem is three-fold, said Township Manager Carol Lewis, and the first two are the parking lot.
Located in the basement of the Upper Pottsgrove Fire Company on Farmington Avenue, the township offices share a small, crumbling parking lot with the firehouse.
Much of the parking lot’s surface is cinder and, due to the slope, can be difficult for people with limited mobility.
Second, the lot is simply too small to accommodate the number of people who showed up to vote.
According to the Montgomery County Office of Voter Services, 37.61 percent of Upper Pottsgrove’s 3,483 registered voters showed up at the polls April 26.
That’s 1,310 total voters. (Interesting note: Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton 289 votes to 281 in the Democratic presidential primary. Donald Trump easily won the Republican contest with 419 votes).
“We had cars stacked up along Farmington Avenue, it’s just not safe,” Lewis acknowledged.
In addition to the parking lot being too small, so too are the township offices.
“People came in to sign in and then we had two lines snaking past the conference room and out into the parking lot,” Lewis said of election day.
“The last voter of the day was in line by 8 p.m., but that vote was not cast until approximately 8:45,” Commissioner France Krazalkovich, who worked the polls on election day, told The Mercury.
“The fire police were out all day directing traffic,” he said. “The township administrative offices can no longer handle the demands of an electorate of almost 3,500 registered voters.”
Lewis said Krazalkovich informed the board that the county, Republican and Democratic party officials have been in touch with the school district administration in an attempt to secure the middle school.
“It’s my understanding that Superintendent Shellie Feola has provided the facility use agreement to the county and that the school board has discussed it as well,” Lewis said.
“Hopefully an agreement can be reached to relocate to the middle school,” said Krazalkovich.
Ultimately, Lewis reflected, “we have too many voters in Upper Pottgrove. I guess that’s not a bad problem to have.”
