IMPORTANT VOTER DEADLINES LOOMING
State's April Primary critical this year
By Travis Moshier and James Moate, Endeavor News

Potter County Director of Elections Sandra Lewis (left) and assistant Judy Eckert have been programming the county's voting machines for the April 22 election. They're planning public demonstrations in several communities next week.

With preliminary elections just around the corner, there are a few very important dates residents in Cameron and Potter counties need to know.

The first is March 24. All voter registration applications must be postmarked or turned in to the voter registration office by March 24 in order to be considered for the April 22 primaries, explained Sandra Lewis, director of voter registration and elections in Potter County. That's the deadline for party and address changes.

Since November, 1,072 new voters have registered in Potter, making 11,209 voters, up 10.5 percent from November's 10,137. Lewis said the increase in voters is typical during a presidential election year.

The number of registered Republicans jumped 8.5 percent to 6826 in the same period, up 540 voters from November's 6286.

The number of registered Democrats has jumped 12.3 percent to 3,488, up 382 from November's 3,106.

Lewis said that she has been seeing an increase in the number of voters switching to the Democratic Party since the media began stressing the importance of the Pennsylvania primaries following the March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas.

"People are coming in and calling the office telling me 'I really feel I have a voice'," Lewis said. They are also asking if they can change parties for the primaries and change back after, which Lewis said is perfectly legal.

A slight increase has taken place in Cameron County since November's election, but numbers are starting to steadily go up as the primaries approach. Currently, there are only 3,693 registered voters in Cameron County, up a little less than one percent from 3,662 on October 15, which was the last day to register for that election, according to Chief Clerk Brenda Munz.

The total number of registered Democrats is at 1,555 (up 10 percent since October) while the number of Republicans is up by 11 at 1,829. There are 309 voters in other categories with 170 registered as "no affiliation."

The second date to remember is April 15. All absentee ballots must be mailed to the voter registration office in Potter County or the commissioners' office in Cameron County by April 15.

The actual cutoff for absentee ballots is April 18, Lewis said, but anyone wishing to cast an absentee ballot after April 15 must do it on the spot in the office. These same rules apply in Cameron County as well. Anyone who wishes to file after April 15 has until 5 pm on April 18 to do so in the commissioners' office.

Lewis said that two candidates for the state treasurer position on the Democrat ballot are still in litigation, and the certified ballots have not come in yet because of this. The official ballots should be in by early next week at the latest, she said.

With the ballots not being certified, Lewis says she doesn't feel comfortable releasing the names on the ballots yet, but did offer the positions that are up for votes.

President, Attorney General, Auditor General, State Treasurer, Representative 5th District, Senator in General Assembly 25th District and Representative in General Assembly 67th District are on both ballots.

The Democrat ballot also contains a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention for the 5th District and an Alternate Delegate to the Democratic National Convention for the 5th District.

The Republican ballot contains a Delegate to the Republican National Convention for the 5th District, an Alternate Delegate to the Republican National Convention for the 5th District, a member of the Representative State Committee, a Committeeman and a Committeewoman.

Lewis explained that the committeeman and committeewoman were positions that each municipality and ward could select to represent his or her municipality in the state committee.

For those who are still leery about using the electronic voting machines, Lewis said she will be having public demonstrations throughout the county on the machines. The demonstrations will allow residents to practice casting their ballots, including selecting, deselecting and writing in candidates.

The demonstrations will be given during the evenings starting the week of March 17 and carrying on through the first week in April. Specific dates and times are listed in a story on page 3. Anyone wishing to use the machines during the day is welcome to stop in to the voter registration office during regular business hours, she noted.

Since there are very few voting machines in Cameron County, those who are apprehensive about using the machines can contact the commissioners' office at 486-2315 to learn more about how to operate them.