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 On June 23, 2020 Steve Ulrich, York County Election Office Director, spoke at the York East Rotary club meeting. He spoke about the impact of the Covid 19 virus on the primary election and what lessons were learned. Voting seemed to go more smoothly in the primary at some of the polling places that had problems in the Nov. 5 municipal election, likely thanks to changes made by the York County Board of Commissioners and the county Board of Elections. East Manchester Township voters said their new polling place at Northeastern Middle School was a big improvement over voting at Starview United Church of Christ in November, where there was only one ballot scanning machine, leading to long wait times. Results were delayed for days. The county commissioners voted to buy several additional ballot scanners to make the process more efficient, and the board permanently relocated about a dozen polling places and redistricted one election precinct to address capacity and parking issues. Several other polling places were temporarily changed for the June 2 primary to accommodate health and safety precautions necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreak, which is still ongoing in York County and across the state More than 54,000 people in York County, or about 19% of the county's registered voters, applied for mail-in ballots for the primary. As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, about 38,000 people had returned their mail-in ballots to the county. The commissioners approved extra staffing to help count the mail in ballots. The county did not release results until Wednesday in part because of the unprecedented number of mail-in ballots that are being counted. Lessons learned will help make the fall election go smoothly as well. |