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Local Elections Vital to Democracy
Posted 3-23-1999
This May and this November Westmoreland County voters will be electing candidates for a
broad range of elected offices. The offices range from State Appellate Court Judges, to
Common Pleas Court Judges, District Justices, County Commissioners and Row Officers, to
School Directors, and many municipal government officials. While these offices may not be
as high profile as President, Congress, and Governor, they are very important because they
touch all of our lives in one way or another. Our responsibility as citizens is to learn
what the duties of the offices are, who the candidates are, what their candidacies offer,
and then get out and vote.
County government is responsible for
conducting the elections in Westmoreland County. Our Election Bureau is the group that
must find polling places in each of the county's 306 precincts. They also must ensure that
there are workers available to conduct check-in of voters, make sure the voting machines
function properly, and do the initial, unofficial tally of votes. In 1999 we are spending
$892,000 to operate the Election Bureau. That amount includes the office staff salaries
and benefits, equipment and the printing work we must do for two elections, and the
$267,000 we must spend to have folks work inside each polling place in the county. That
number has gone up and we pay one of the highest stipends in the region.
Without increasing that fee, we were
finding it more and more difficult to ensure that we had the proper number of workers at
each precinct. The day is extremely long and the stipend doesn't translate into much of an
hourly wage. The work is certainly part community service and many individuals have been
serving in their precincts for years. We hope to get more young voters involved in working
inside precincts, but for many it would mean taking a day off of work.
The County then is responsible for
collecting the vote totals from each of the 306 precincts and compiling them into totals
for every race. The state-wide race totals are forwarded election night to Harrisburg for
merger with the Commonwealth's other counties. The county races and local race total are
tallied at the Courthouse and, depending on how quick results are returned to Greensburg,
unofficial winners can be determined late on Election Day. After the election an official
count is done with representatives from each major party verifying the unofficial results.
Then the Election Board certifies the results.
What I have described is the functional
part of the election process. It is the effort that takes place every election. But it is
only part of the process. The other part is played by citizens who choose to run for
office. They must be registered voters (in primaries, members of the two major parties)
and must work to first get enough signatures on petitions to have their names placed on
the ballot. After petitions are filed, a lottery is conducted by the Election Bureau to
determine ballot position. From that point candidates have one week to withdraw from the
election' then the Election Bureau begins to prepare ballots.
It takes a certain amount of courage or
commitment for people to run for public office. Politicians have sometimes been given a
less than noble reputation, and certainly many have done things to develop that
reputation. But many are being good citizens in a participatory democracy and they deserve
credit for a willingness to serve. They certainly deserve courteous treatment when
campaigning. Interaction between candidates and the electorate allows you to better learn
about the candidates. I believe the biggest challenge to our democracy is apathy and a
lack of participation in the political process. As citizens we have a responsibility to
play some role in our political system and we should respect those people who are willing
to play the most active role as candidates. While we enjoy the freedom to not participate,
it certainly contradicts the efforts of so many Americans who fought in some way to ensure
we all have the right to play an active role. |
