Nov 6, 2018 3 min read

State police arrested a man Tuesday after he allegedly threatened to shoot workers at a South Franklin Township polling station.

State police said in charging papers Christopher T. Queen, 48, of Elk County, had gone to South Franklin Volunteer Fire Department just after 8 a.m. and tried to vote, but couldn’t because he wasn’t registered there.

“After being advised that he was unable to vote, he became angry and related that he was going to get a gun then return and ‘shoot up’ this polling station, causing public inconvenience, annoyance and/or alarm,” a trooper wrote. “This threat was heard by numerous voters and workers inside the building.”

State police added Queen left at that point before police found and apprehended him at an address on Old Scales Road, a few miles from the voting precinct.

Queen is listed in court papers as having an address in Elk County, but records for traffic tickets he received a month ago in South Franklin Township show him as having a Claysville address.

Records maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of State indicate Queen is registered as an active Republican voter at a polling location in Highland Township, the same Elk County municipality as the address in the charging papers.

The charging papers didn’t indicate whether Queen was, in fact, armed. Agency spokesman Trooper Robert Broadwater of the Uniontown barracks didn’t immediately return a message late in the afternoon.

Queen is charged with terroristic threats and disorderly conduct. Neither count relates to weapons.

Court records say he was sent to the county jail after District Judge Jay Weller set bond at $10,000.

Washington County assistant elections director Melanie Ostrander said Queen also allegedly threatened to shoot officials in the county elections office at Courthouse Square.

She said officials notified sheriff’s deputies, who provide security at the courthouse and other county property, and state police. Ostrander said the elections office was locked in light of the alleged threat before Queen was caught.

Also Tuesday morning, a Canton Township polling location opened about half an hour late.

Ostrander said no one showed up on time to open the voting precinct at Friendship Community Church on Weirich Avenue because of “miscommunication on who was to open the building.”

“We did have a problem,” Ostrander said. “Someone from the building did not show up to open on time. As soon as we found out about the situation, we worked to contact someone with the church to get the building opened, and the precinct opened at 7:37.”

She said a few people were already there to vote when the building was supposed to open and “unfortunately they had to be delayed” before they could cast their ballots.

Ostrander said otherwise the morning had gone normally, but she did note her office had been getting calls from poll workers who weren’t complaining but were seeing more voters turning up than usual.

“What we anticipated, that it was going to be a large turnout – it is,” she said.