The Venango County elections office held its public voting machine test Friday morning in the Courthouse Annex in preparation for Tuesday’s primary election.
Melanie Bailey, the county elections director, unlocked one of the machines Friday, and several practice ballots were cast to ensure the machine was working correctly.
Then the machine was closed up and won’t be reopened until Tuesday.
The practice ballots that were cast Friday won’t be counted.
On election day, the Franklin post office delivers mail-in ballots to the Courthouse Annex frequently throughout the day, Bailey said.
“Other counties are jealous of our good relationship with the post office,” voter registrar Laura Anna said.
Bailey reminded everyone not to put extra marks on their mail-in ballot or secrecy envelope. She explained that mail-in ballots with marks on the secrecy envelope can’t be counted.
A total of 2,736 mail-in and absentee ballots have been sent out for the primary, with the vast majority of them being mail-in ballots, according to the elections office.
Of the 31,928 registered voters in Venango County, 19,005 are Republicans and 8,498 are Democrats. The remaining 4,425 voters are registered as independent or some third party.
Pennsylvania’s primary is closed, meaning that only registered Republicans can vote for Republicans in the primary and Democrats likewise. Those not registered as either Democrat or Republican can’t vote in the primary.
“I’m always open for the public to come in and learn more about elections,” Bailey said, adding that she wants to get more young people interested in elections.
“We do have a good system…I’m very confident in the elections in Venango County,” said Venango County Commissioner Sam Breene, who is on the county election board.
He added that they pull it off with a “skeleton crew” made up of the elections office, election board and volunteers who troubleshoot and process ballots on election day.
Tuesday’s primary ballots in Venango County feature candidates running for president, U.S. Senate, other statewide offices (attorney general, auditor general, treasurer), U.S. House seats, and state House and state Senate heats.
Most of the candidates other than some running for statewide offices are unopposed on their party ballots. And Democratic ballots in the county don’t include any listed candidates for state House and state Senate seats.
