Presidential Race Increases County Voter Turnout

 

by Jonathan Weaver

Nearly 31,000 Armstrong County residents voted at the county’s more-than five dozen polling places yesterday.

Elections Director Jennifer Bellas was in her office at 6AM and didn’t stop until about 10:30PM last night.

“It was busy. We did get word on a couple glitches here-and-there – which is to be expected – but nothing we didn’t handle or overcome,” Bellas said.

Bellas’ introduction to the process came during last November’s municipal election with now retired-elections director Wendy Buzzard – who Bellas still has on speed-dial.

“That’s a lot of experience to count on. (Buzzard) is very good at what she did,” Bellas said. “I do still utilize her knowledge.”

Bellas predicted an even-greater voter turnout, but said last night was similar to the 2012 output of more than 70 percent of voters.

“But, we haven’t counted absentees yet – so that figure may go up slightly,” Bellas said. “It’s going to go up, but I don’t know by how much.”

Absentee ballots – including Bellas’ – still will be counted either by machine or by hand.

“It’ll probably be the end of next week before we have our final numbers,” Bellas said.

Commissioner George Skamai commended Bellas on her duties throughout the day.

Bellas said about 300 poll workers assisted voters at the various polling places – from the two poll workers at Hovey Township (with only 37 registered voters) to the five poll workers in areas such as Plumcreek, West Franklin and Kittanning Townships (each with more than 1,200 registered voters).

The first votes turned over the Armstrong County Courthouse were from Kittanning Borough 4th Ward voters.

Constable Gary Atwood said more than 2/3rds of registered voters in the ward – 354 voters – cast their ballots.

The second batch of votes came from Manor Township – the South 2nd ward.

A Manor Township Judge of Elections, Kathy Rashlich, said 776 voters cast their ballots at the First Baptist Church near Lenape Elementary School. About 30 absentee ballots also were not included in yesterday’s turnout.

“We’re usually over the 50 percent mark – usually right around 500 (voters),” Rashlich said.

Rashlich was accompanied to the courthouse maintenance building by West Virginia University student Will Armentrout – who has worked during six Election Day events, last night being his first Presidential election.

Debbie Reesman, a Rayburn Township poll worker, also reported more than 650 votes cast Tuesday – nearly 70 percent of registered voters.

“That’s probably double that we usually have,” Reesman said.

Distant Representative Gabrielle Veronesi worked an election for the first time Tuesday with her mother, Marcie Wynkoop, and cousin, Kenndra Cravener. Veronesi reported more than 675 cast their ballots Tuesday – more than 75 percent of registered voters.

“This is the first time I ever did it, and my mom said this (was) the highest (turnout) she’s ever had – and she’s been doing it for years,” Veronesi said.

Bellas was “grateful” for all the assistance across the county last night.

After all votes cast Tuesday were counted, more than 22,600 local voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence – part of the more-than 2.9 million Pennsylvanians that voted for Trump to be named early this morning as the 45th President-elect of the United States.

Constable Atwood said before 8:30PM that if his ward’s votes represented the county or nation, Trump would win the General Election.

“Big time,” Atwood said.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton conceded the election to Trump shortly after 2AM Wednesday morning.

24 Comments

• 

  By jorn jensen, November 9, 2016 @ 7:13 AM

  Of course this election turnout was increased - this was an election between right and wrong for this country. Pat Toomey rode back in on Trump’s coat tails - now Pat Toomey has to decide if he’s going to be a president Trump supporter or not. Prior to the election, Toomey did not support Trump and was among the RINOs that spoke out against Trump. I don’t think I’d want to be a ‘winning’ Toomey today.

  Glad that Don White was re-elected. Congratulations Don. Now we can complete SB76 and give Pennsylvanians their homes back.
• 

  By localtaxpayer, November 9, 2016 @ 8:28 AM

  Congrats to all PA conservitives. Some people on here said, with their liberal angry attitude, that “PA would never vote RED” dream on…..then something like hay hay good bye.” But PA went RED as i predicted and in addition!!!!!! We won the White House, Senate, House, which in turn means the surpreme court!!!!! Now lets get some good done. Replace obama care. And over turn R vs W
• 

  By jorn jensen, November 9, 2016 @ 8:59 AM

  Excellent comment, localtaxpayer!
• 

  By sickofpayingforit, November 9, 2016 @ 9:51 AM

  Hey Jorn, I went to bed early. Who won last night???!!!!! LOL

  As expected, the loudest people, pre-election, are nowhere to be found when things didn’t go there way….. typical for the type actually.

  Congratulations America. Your children have been given a second chance at the American Dream.
• 

  By jd718, November 9, 2016 @ 10:32 AM

  Sick, After you get done tripping over yourself at the end of the day you’re still a lap-dog! LOL

  Hey, I am right here not going anywhere soon! T-Rump has to put-up and I will be here to let you know when he doesn’t!

  Running your Lips because you Finally won after 8 Years, Typical for the type actually! We will see how much of the American Dream T-Rump can deliver, he does Lie, you Know! LOL Typical for the type, he’s a Real Grabber! LOL
• 

  By jd718, November 9, 2016 @ 10:49 AM

  Sick, “Putin says he will try to repair ties with U.S.A under Trump!” Sick, should we all brush up on the Russian language and ways and become Lackeys like you? LOL
• 

  By Just sayin, November 9, 2016 @ 11:34 AM

  It’s the Nightmare before Christmas.
  Congratulations on electing Potty Mouth.

  Now grab your “[you-know-whats.]” Judge women for their bodies (“A flat-chested woman is very hard to be a 10″…For pageants, make the “bathing suits smaller and the heels higher”…”You wouldn’t have a job if you weren’t beautiful.”) I hope he likes you women who voted for him or you’ll be called “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” He can’t say that he “treats women with respect.”

  Now go punish your women for having (even medically necessary) abortions…”They’ll have to go to illegal places.” Now go “defund Planned Parenthood.”

  Now go make fun of the mentally and physically challenged and don’t apologize for it.

  Now go overrule the decisions for same-sex marriages.

  Now go build your walls and keep all those Mexicans out, but at the same time, admire all the negative and evil leaders of the world. Potty Mouth admires them. But on the other hand, keep those Muslims out, and “bomb the [you-know-what] out of them.”

  “This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish,” says a man whose wife can barely speak or understand English after living here for 17 years.

  Now go have her fund her charities such as those poor, skinny, anorexic Victoria Secret Angels.

  Now go have fun with your, as he said, “Kind of Debt.” He “loves debt.” Now go give HUGE TAX CUTS to the WEALTHY.

  Now “go [you-know-what] yourselves.” You made your beds, now lie in them.

  We are going backward in time and in ethical behaviors. A lot that we fought for will be taken away.

  But remember this about the Potty President… He will be discovered for his lying to all of you like the trash in the bare winter woods, after people who put it there in the summer (thinking no one will see it).
• 

  By cartman, November 9, 2016 @ 11:34 AM

  First of all, I have to say that I am glad the election is over. I am delighted with how it turned out. I wonder if just sayin’ and buddies are enjoying their meal of crow. It looks as though Americans care about the country after all. Sweep out the socialists!!!
• 

  By jorn jensen, November 9, 2016 @ 11:51 AM

  sickofpayingfoit - I wrapped it up about 2:30 AM when Trump hit 277. Great comment on the kids having a 2nd chance at the American dream.

  I’d favor elimination of the electoral college since these are modern times with high-tech electronics and such - no more messengers on fast horseback. But, dead people voting, machines changing party votes and people catching it and so forth, I think we need to clean up the electronic systems before eliminating the electoral college system.

  Low-cost fix to the red/blue map shown all over the media - instead of building a wall along Mexico, let the Rockies be the wall between the United States and the left coast. And, give New England back to England - for free. Here, queenie, it’s all yours including Boston harbor. Go ahead and tax their tea.
• 

  By Just sayin, November 9, 2016 @ 11:52 AM

  EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! (NY TIMES)
  > ” Welcome to the new, or apparently not so new, DSA….. (Divided States of America).”

  > ” We thought that our fellow citizens would not, in the end, vote for a candidate so manifestly unqualified for high office, so temperamentally unsound, so scary yet ludicrous.
  >
  > We thought that the nation, while far from having transcended racial prejudice and misogyny, had become vastly more open and tolerant over time.
  >
  > We thought that the great majority of Americans valued democratic norms and the rule of law.
  >
  > It turns out that we were wrong.
  >
  > There turn out to be a huge number of people — white people, living mainly in rural areas — who don’t share at all our idea of what America is about. For them, it is about blood and soil, about traditional patriarchy and racial hierarchy. And there were many other people who might not share those anti-democratic values, but who nonetheless were willing to vote for anyone bearing the Republican label.”
• 

  By Just sayin, November 9, 2016 @ 11:56 AM

  Typo:
  Now go have fun with your, as he said, “King of Debt.” He “loves debt.” Now go give HUGE TAX CUTS to the WEALTHY.
• 

  By Just sayin, November 9, 2016 @ 12:02 PM

  Cartman: Hope your enjoying your meal of Jim Crow.

  And Trump….DON’T forget to get rid of ISIS the first day you are president. We’ll be waiting and singing, “Hallelujah!”
• 

  By Just sayin, November 9, 2016 @ 12:04 PM

  Typo: Cartman: Hope you’re enjoying your meal of Jim Crow.

  And Trump….DON’T forget to get rid of ISIS the first day you are president. We’ll be waiting and singing, “Hallelujah!”
• 

  By jerry6, November 9, 2016 @ 12:19 PM

  I wonder if all those republicans in office who would not support Trump will now back him. How long will it take Trump to get that wall built. I heard a republican this morning said they have a health care plan to replace the Affortable care act. Sometimes the grass looks greener on the other side till we get it.
  I don’t think Trump will affect my life at my age but I hope whatever he does, doesn’t harm the young people who his policies will mostly affect.
  I didn’t expect men to care about the dirty things Trump said about women and the way he has put women down all his life but how can a woman vote for this kind of behavior. Unless he gets some good people running his office, I don’t expect much from him.
• 

  By Just sayin, November 9, 2016 @ 12:22 PM

  Cartman:
  Definition of eating crow:”Eating crow is an American colloquial idiom meaning humiliation by admitting wrongness or having been proven wrong after taking a strong position.”

  Trump winning didn’t prove us wrong; so we are not eating crow.

  We were wrong about the American people (who I am so disgusted and so disappointed with).
  More people voted for Hillary (what does that prove?), but she didn’t win the electoral votes.
  THAT needs to change.

  What it does prove is that the people who elected President-Elect Potty Mouth are racist, bigoted, evil, sexist, STUPID (yes, I wrote STUPID)and non-religious. Sheep to the slaughterhouse… Have fun getting your throats slit.
• 

  By jerry6, November 9, 2016 @ 12:28 PM

  Hillary won the popular vote by over two million votes.
  Trump has 75 lawsuits against him and Trump university trial this month. I read about him raping a 13 year old 20 years ago.
  At least Obama didn’t have any scandals. He is a good family man, good father, and husband. His flaw with a lot of people is his skin color.
  I heard Trump wants Rudy Guiliana, N. gingridge in his cabinet. Any time I have heard Rudy speak, he seems like he has a loose screw. Trump, Rudy, and Neut have nine wives between them. Someone must be hard to get along with.
• 

  By mad-2010, November 9, 2016 @ 12:54 PM

  @ cartman, First of all, just sayin and buddies aren’t enjoying a meal of crow any more than you did the last 8 years under a Dem President, get it?

  Americans do care about the country, that is why Clinton won the popular vote! However, that’s not what puts you in the white house and we (justsayin and buddies) understand the American way and it’s Democracy, Do you cartman?
• 

  By mad-2010, November 9, 2016 @ 12:59 PM

  @ local, “Two of the court’s liberals, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer, are 83 and 78, respectively. Moderate conservative Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 80.”

  “As long as those three stay, the court’s rulings on sensitive social issues — protecting abortion rights, affirmative action and gay rights, for instance — are secure.”

  Read This Slow Local, Your man may have won the election, But, Your are still a little Backwards! LOL
• 

  By sickofpayingforit, November 9, 2016 @ 2:27 PM

  I must say, Hillary was classy in defeat. Wonder if the kind Trump words were a back-room deal to keep him from sicking the dogs on here and putting her in Martha Stewart’s old cell???

  Also, she owed it to her supporters to stick it out last night and not ship them home to come back to here what was obvious the night before. I thought that was a tad elitist….
• 

  By cartman, November 9, 2016 @ 5:47 PM

  To all of you simple minded lolers lol! You clowns said that Clinton would win in landslide. What happened? If they are true to their word, we might get rid of skanks like Miley Cyrus. That would be great.
• 

  By Marc, November 9, 2016 @ 9:29 PM

  sickofcommonsense,

  Maybe the other posters were busy at work this morning unlike the slacker that posted at 9:51am on Nov 9th LOL

  Didn’t you outlaw posts here between 9am-5pm?

  Which American dream? The last one you guys managed where many people lost their houses, 401k’s and their jobs? Maybe the dream of a war we couldn’t afford? This should be fun to watch!
• 

  By jorn jensen, November 10, 2016 @ 6:51 AM

  Just wondering - if Hillary had won, would there be riots, fires set and looting afterward? Just wondering where the responsibility for the great divide lies in this great country.
• 

  By sean spring, November 10, 2016 @ 6:54 AM

  “The American Dream…where you have to be asleep to believe it” George Carlin……
• 

  By jd718, November 10, 2016 @ 7:29 AM

  “Just wondering – if Hillary had won, would there be riots, fires set and looting afterward?” Sure there would have been trouble from the right, just ask Worthy and the Militia!

  “Just wondering where the responsibility for the great divide lies in this great country.” From people like you, jensen, check that mirror! LOL

  T-Rump said the election was Rigged, maybe he was right about something for a change!

  @ cartman, “You clowns said that Clinton would win in landslide.” She did win in a landslide called the popular vote! LOL “What happened?”

  However, the American way is the right way, it’s called the electorate count wins the election! Fools and Clowns like you were stuck on Obamaphones that never were! How Silly, cartman! LOL

  The people are not with you Fascist Pigs!

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