Rescheduled election will feature changes in polling places, procedures

Perry County Clerk Jared Kutz has no illusions about Tuesday’s general municipal election. It’s going to be different.
Originally scheduled for the first Tuesday in April, the election was postponed until June 2 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the state approaches the end of Phase 1 of Gov. Mike Parson’s plan to reopen the state, this election will be very different from those in the past, both in terms of turnout and procedures.
“I usually get pretty lucky on predicting what the turnout is going to be for a given election,” Kutz said. “This is one of those unknowns. I’ll be frank. I expect it to be a little bit higher turnout in the city of Perryville because there is a mayor’s race than the rest of the county, even though there are a couple contested races and some ballot tax levy issues on a couple of ballots. But those issues are on a very small portion of the ballots in the county, less than 150 total ballots.
“I told my election judges this morning that if we exceed 5 percent, I’ll actually be very surprised.”
Parson issued an executive order March 18 moving all municipal elections in the state from April 7 to June 2. The order came in response to a request from Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and a previous executive order declaring a state of emergency in response to COVID-19.
That’s not the only change Perry County voters can expect, starting off with new polling places for some of the county’s precincts.
On April 27, Kutz announced that, in response to the pandemic, his office would be consolidating and relocating select polling locations until further notice.
Kutz said the consolidation was necessary to ensure the health and safety of the election judges, especially those who fall into the at-risk category for contracting the novel coronavirus. Put simply, fewer polling places mean fewer election workers.
“I hope we don’t see a reduction just because we changed polling places,” said Kutz, whose office advertised the changes in the newspaper and even sent postcards to registered voters impacted by the change. “We went above and beyond. A lot of the voters actually received a new voter ID card too, which had the place where folks vote on there as well.”
The change will affect close to 5,000 of Perry County’s registered voters.
Polling locations impacted by the decision are Farrar, Longtown, and Lithium, along with Perryville P-1 and P-4.
Voters who previously cast their ballot at Salem Lutheran School in Farrar will now vote at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Crosstown, Longtown’s voters will now cast their ballot at Grace Lutheran School in Uniontown, Lithium voters will now vote at Elizabeth Seton Hall in Brewer, and Perryville’s P-1, Perry County Senior Center voters will join P-4, National Guard Armory voters and cast their ballots at the Perry Park Center.
Kutz said that voters can expect the new locations to remain the same until further notice.
Election workers will see some changes as well. In preparation for Tuesday’s election, Kutz led a training session for his election team supervisors Tuesday at City Park in Perryville.
“We had a good election judge training today,” Kutz said. “We went over a lot of increased procedures and things like that with the election judges for sanitation efforts to clean their spaces, making sure that no pen is reused by a voter, that we’re going to be cleaning and sanitizing the booths more frequently than we have in the past, just as a result of all the things associated with the pandemic.”
Having a training session in park was also a significant change from his usual election preparations.
“Normally, we put 30 to 35 judges into our training room in the basement of the administration building, but we thought there’s absolutely no way that we would be able to have a judge training and ensure the social distancing thing,” Kutz said. “Because of the weather being a little more favorable, we decided to have the judge training at the park and it went really well. It was a nice change of scenery.”
Tuesday’s ballot only features a handful of contested races, led by the race for mayor in the city of Perryville. Incumbent Ken Baer, 74, is seeking his fourth term, facing off with challenger and political newcomer Thomas Handrick, 71, a semi-retired minister.
In his response to a questionnaire regarding his priorities for another term, Baer said, “We will continue to strive for more efficiency and effectiveness in city government.”
Handrick, 71, hopes for better communication between citizens and city government.
“My priority would be to cultivate a personal team-relationship with the elected and contracted municipal leaders and employees, fellow citizens, local businesses, and other organizations,” Handrick said, “thereby taking to the next level what already exists for the continued growth, security, and welfare of our town which would then encourage retention of residents and invite new ones into our wonderful town.”
Most voters in the county will get the chance to select three members of the Perry County School District No. 32 board from among four candidates — Nancy Voelker, Ashley Geringer, Jamie Robinson and Kathy Carron.
Voelker, Carron and Robinson, who serves as board president, are all incumbents, while Geringer hopes to unseat one of them for a spot on the board.
“The first thing I think we can improve upon is community and parent trust and involvement,” said Geringer, 35, who also called for continued training and support for district employees.
Robinson, 49, who also serves on the board of the Perryville Chamber of Commerce, said his priority, especially in light of concerns over COVID-19, would be “to ensure that we provide a high-quality education regardless of how, when and where we will have to give it.”
Carron, 55, said one of the needs she sees in the district is a need to “better prepare our students for the technical wave of the future” through the expansion of STEM — or science, technology, engineering and math — classes.
“Our goal is to continue to expand these classes so all students will have some exposure to cutting edge technology,” Carron said.
The only county-wide contested race is for a seat on the Perry County Memorial Hospital board, where incumbent Gregory Unger is facing challenger Sharon K. Unterreiner.
“The pandemic has made it perfectly clear how important the hospital is to our community,” said Unger, 59. “We must strengthen the financial position of the hospital so that it remains strong enough to handle future medical emergencies. As a community we are fortunate to have the level of care we enjoy and we must do all we can to keep it.”
Unterreiner, 72, who serves on the board for the Perry County Health Department, said she hopes to ensure that the hospital continues to press forward “with more services for the aged and infirmed including more clinics available for chronic illnesses.”

Belgique/Sereno Our Lady of Victory Hall, 172, PCR 920, Sereno
Altenburg Altenburg City Hall, 8904 Main Street, Altenburg
Frohna Frohna City Hall, 6297 Main St. (rear), Frohna
Perryville P-1 Perry Park Center, 800 City Park Lane, Perryville
Perryville P-2 Perryville City Hall, 215 N. West Street, Perryville
Perryville P-3 KC Hall, 31 Church Street, Perryville
Perryville P-4 Perry Park Center, 800 City Park Lane
Perryville P-5 Elks Lodge Hall, 921 N. Perryville Blvd., Perryville
Biehle St. Maurus Parish Center, 10198 Hwy. B, Biehle
Highland Highland Catholic Church Hall, 138 St. Joseph Ln., Highland
Crosstown Bethlehem Baptist Church, 160 PCR 350, Crosstown
Farrar Bethlehem Baptist Church, 160 PCR 350, Crosstown
Brewer Elizabeth Seton Hall, 59 Shady Ln., Brewer
Lithium Elizabeth Seton Hall, 59 Shady Ln., Brewer
Silver Lake St. Rose Lima Church Hall 10165 Hwy. T, Silver Lake
Yount Whitewater Christian Church, 3687 Hwy. BB, Yount
Longtown Grace Lutheran School, 84 Grace Ln., Uniontown
Uniontown Grace Lutheran School, 84 Grace Ln., Uniontown