Voter Turnout

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- Election officials have prepared for a higher-than-usual voter turnout today. Dorothy Kaetzel, Washington County's election director, said she expects about 80 percent of the county's 85,184 registered voters to cast votes this year. In 2004, during the last presidential election, 58,086 of the 77,309 registered voters turned out to vote, for a turnout of 75.13 percent, she said. Kaetzel asked that voters be patient if they have to stand in line, and recommended voting between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when polling places would be the least busy.

When the power went off Tuesday morning at Maranatha Brethren Church - the 18th precinct polling place with 11 Deibold machines - voters never suffered. Election judge Herman Long, who lives next to the church, simply lugged over his generator, which kept the machines operating until around 2:15 p.m. when crews repaired a damaged power line nearby. The machines' battery backups supported them until Long got the generator running. Not that a four-hour power outage would have affected the turnout much anyway, Long said.

Voter turnout in Franklin County, Pa., during Tuesday's municipal election was about 20 percent in early election returns. In Washington Township's first precinct, 267 voters cast choices for positions like jury commissioner, judge of the Pennsylvania Superior court and constable. However, the most closely watched race in that municipality was the one seat open on the Waynesboro Area School Board. Political newcomers Chris Lind, Bonnie Bachtell and Brenda Lucas were leading in the Waynesboro Area School Board race on Tuesday with only five precincts in the district not reporting.

Officials say absentee ballots predicting big voter turnout By JULIE E. GREENE / Staff Writer If the number of absentee ballots being issued in the Tri-State area is any indication - and election officials think it is - voter turnout should be high for next Tuesday's general election. continued Washington County Election Director Dorothy Kaetzel said voter turnout could reach 77 percent, up from 70 percent in the 1996 presidential election. Kaetzel has issued almost 2,400 of the 2,500 absentee ballots on hand and has ordered 500 more since emergency absentee ballots can still be issued.

Jefferson County officials were able to work out problems with a new ballot-counting machine for Tuesday's primary election, but the new voting system still was presenting challenges Tuesday night. Voters in Jefferson County were able to use new touch-screen voting machines or a new paper ballot system. With the paper ballots, voters filled in ovals beside candidate names to make selections. Jefferson County Clerk Jennifer Maghan said the counting process was slowed Tuesday night because some voters put an "x" in the ovals rather than filling them in. When that happened, voting officials had to "re-create" the person's ballot so it could be counted in the machine, Maghan said.

The head of the county election board had predicted up to a 40 percent voter turnout in Washington County in Tuesday's primary elections, but with light activity at polls during the day, she lowered that prediction to 20 to 25 percent by Tuesday night. With only seven of the county's 54 precincts reporting as of about 9:15 p.m., Kaye E. Robucci, director of the Washington County Board of Elections, could only offer a rough estimate of voter turnout. Robucci said she based her 20 percent to 25 percent turnout prediction on the fact that voting was light at polls in the early part of the day. “Usually, we have people lined up at the door, and it just wasn't there,” Robucci said.

scottb@herald-mail.com Hagerstown City Councilman N. Linn Hendershot wants the city to consider switching Election Day from Tuesday to Saturday in an attempt to increase voter turnout, but some political officials questioned whether the idea would work. Religious officials also registered concern about a possible switch interfering with the Sabbath. The voter turnout in the last city election, in May 2001, was 17.3 percent, with 3,159 of the 18,264 registered voters casting votes, Washington County Election Board officials said.

Thumbs up to those who went to the polls Tuesday in Maryland's primary election. Voter turnout was lower than expected, but at 25.42 percent, Washington County had the highest election-day turnout of the state's 23 counties and Baltimore City. Thumbs up to Musselman High School student council officers and driver-education students who, by signing West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's Safe Driver Pledge this week, agreed not to send text messages while driving. Thumbs up to Andrew Cross, a first-grader at Emma K. Doub School for Integrated Arts and Technology, who won first place in the Graphic Arts K-2 category of the Maryland Society for Educational Technology's student contests.

Sometimes it's hard to stir up political interest in a small town. Voter turnout is frequently low, and as we've seen, sometimes even candidate turnout leaves something to be desired. Smithsburg had difficulty finding people to run for town council, and in Clear Spring last November, all of 22 people turned out to vote in the town election. For the good of the county and the towns, we would still hope that as many people as possible become involved in the electoral process. Just because there's no political excitement in your town at the moment doesn't mean that something that affects your life won't pop up in the coming years.

SHARPSBURG - Thirty-four people voted in Tuesday's Sharpsburg election, more than enough to make winners of all four Town Council candidates who ran uncontested. Election Director Anna Louise Jamison said voter turnout was 7 percent, the lowest in the 20 years she has been working the polls. Jamison said she believed only 34 of 478 registered voters cast a ballot because the races were uncontested. Vice Mayor Sidney Gale, who received 33 votes, said low voter turnout is usually related to a constituency satisfied with how elected officials are doing their jobs.