Jan 27, 2017 2 min read

After learning that a number of Mt. Pleasant Township residents object to the proposed realignment of voting districts, President Judge Katherine B. Emery denied the Washington County Election Board’s request to change boundary lines there, but allowed the process to move forward in five other communities.

“I haven’t had a drink in 30 years, but I’m ready to have one and go back and tell people I represented you and I did good,” said Mt. Pleasant Township Supervisor Don Reed after the hearing.

Homebuilding in Cherry Valley Estates has drawn many to move to Mt. Pleasant Township – so many that the district in which the development is located has more than 1,600 registered voters, 400 more than the state Election Code calls for in a single precinct. The other three districts in the township have fewer than 800 voters.

Under the plan of the election board, residents of Hickory who live four doors away from the fire station polling place would have been required to drive four miles away to vote in the village of Westland, Reed told the judge, and Hickory would be split through the middle of Main Street. Emery noted that polling places can change, so there’s no guarantee that those who live nearby would always be able to vote there. Other population centers in Mt. Pleasant Township are Primrose and Southview.

“I’d like to influence it a little bit,” Reed told the judge. “Why is it so lopsided? If we had some input, it would be different.” The outcome of the hearing Friday means precincts will be realigned, however, in Amwell, Canton, Cecil, Donegal and North Strabane townships.

Read more in Saturday’s Observer-Reporter.