{"id":5083,"date":"2012-10-03T18:01:35","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T22:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=5083"},"modified":"2012-10-03T18:05:11","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T22:05:11","slug":"commissioners-get-briefed-on-election-day-readiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=5083","title":{"rendered":"Commissioners get briefed on Election Day readiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voters may be asked for ID, but they can vote without it<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

John Forsythe, the director of Voter Services, told the commissioners today that his department has taken steps to accommodate voters.<\/p><\/div>\n

At a Board of Elections meeting today, the Chester County Commissioners unanimously voted to relocate a polling place at Lincoln University, the site of a 2008 move that generated national publicity and litigation, and they expressed guarded optimism that the county is ready for the upcoming election, despite lingering voter-ID questions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Barring an unexpected appeal from the state, a Commonwealth Court judge\u2019s Tuesday ruling \u2013 which blocks the voter-ID requirement from taking full effect on Nov. 6 \u2013 means that voters can cast ballots whether they have photo identification or not.<\/p>\n

Eric Gerst, a Democratic attorney who has worked on voters\u2019 rights in the county, asked the commissioners to recommend that poll-workers refrain from asking for IDs from anyone but first-time voters; however, the commissioners questioned their authority to do that.<\/p>\n

Solicitor Thomas Whiteman said the latest court ruling returns the county \u201cto the status quo of the primary.\u201d Voters may be asked for an ID, but they cannot be turned away if they don\u2019t produce one, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong lines are going to happen in a presidential election,\u201d said James Forsythe, the county\u2019s director of\u00a0 Voter Services. But he said the county has been working to minimize delays and will add more optical-scanning voting machines in the more crowded precincts.<\/p>\n

Forsythe said 20 \u201cemergency workers\u201d are being trained so they can respond to any problems that may arise. So far, he said the county has processed 7,518 absentee-ballot requests and has mailed out more than half of them. The last date to request one is Oct. 30, he said, adding that they must be received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 2.<\/p>\n

Gerst told the commissioners that Forsythe and his staff had been responsive to his repeated questions and concerns. \u00a0\u201cHe has done everything he can to make it fair and to make it well-organized and efficient,\u201d said Gerst.<\/p>\n

Unlike the previous Lincoln University relocation decision, which sparked controversy by cramming voters into a small community center rather than the university gymnasium, today\u2019s change was greeted favorably. Voting will take place about 75 yards away at the university\u2019s International Cultural Center, which has much better handicapped access, officials said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Ryan Costello said he wanted to thank all of the employees and volunteers who make exercising democracy possible, especially on Election Day.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a long day,\u201d he said. \u201cWe owe them all a debt of gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters may be asked for ID, but they can vote without it By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times At a Board of Elections meeting today, the Chester County Commissioners unanimously voted to relocate a polling place at Lincoln University, the site of a 2008 move that generated national publicity and litigation, and they expressed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1210,705,1211,1212],"class_list":["post-5083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-chester-county-board-of-elections","tag-chester-county-commissioners","tag-john-forsythe","tag-lincoln-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}