Clinton County Preps for June 2 Election

LOCK HAVEN – Pennsylvania’s June 2 primary election will be like none other in the state’s history. It will be the first one in which all registered voters can request and mail in their votes. And it likely will be the first conducted during a pandemic since the Spanish Flu of 1918.

Clinton County’s voter registrar, Maria Boileau, touched on both of those topics in a Monday “virtual” work session report to the county commissioners.

Boileau said the county needs about a dozen poll workers to fill out the needs at the county’s 34 voting precincts. Among those where assistance is sought are Lock Haven’s second and fifth wards, along with Porter, Crawford and Woodward townships. The pay is $145 for the day, which runs from a 6 a.m. reporting time until after the polls close and work is completed. (The polls are open for in-person voting from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.)

She told the commissioners that if sufficient help is not obtained from the public, county employees will step in. County-provided training this time will be done by mail and videos, no in-person session. She said the state will provide special, coronavirus-related protection equipment, including face masks, gloves and sanitizers. The intent, she said, is to keep everyone healthy and able to vote.

There are over 20,000 registered voters in Clinton County and Boileau reported that she has received 2,200 requests for mail-in ballots; of those, 428 had been returned as of Monday. State residents have until May 18 to request a mail-in ballot and they must be received back by 8 p.m. on June 2.