As elections become highly scrutinized, there’s funding in place to maintain the integrity of local political races. On Wednesday, Crawford County commissioners praised the work of the voter services department and the use of Election Integrity Grant Program (EIGP) funding and unanimously ratified the request to approve funding for 2025-26. The county has received $273,436 from the state.
“This is a huge amount for our election and it’s going to go a long way to helping offset the cost of our poll workers and a lot of other changes, so I certainly appreciate all the work,” Chairman Eric Henry said.
Commissioner Chris Seeley, who is also the Crawford County Board of Elections chairman, said that it’s a tougher grant and it requires a lot of data and information tracking to qualify.
To obtain funding, a county must comply with requirements related to pre-canvassing, canvassing, absentee and mail-in ballot data collection, voter list maintenance and post-election auditing. Jessalyn McFarland, director of voter services, has tracked that information and said that last year, for its first year applying, the county received $276,288.
To ensure election integrity, the funding can be used for payment of staff to canvass and pre-canvass mail-in and absentee ballots, for physical security and transparent costs, post-election procedures, training costs for district officials, payment of staff at polling places on Election Day, printing of ballots, and securing the preparation and transportation of voting equipment.
In Crawford County, the funds have been instrumental in paying poll workers. Each year, Seeley estimates that the baseline they spend on poll workers is $40,000 to $50,000, which can increase on bigger election years. Previously, each poll worker was paid on a scale based on voter turnout for their precinct. For smaller municipalities and areas with more mail-in ballots, Seeley said it was unfair to pay someone less even though they gave up 14 hours of their day. The EIGP funds have helped pay all poll workers equally and provide them with raises.
It has also helped to offset the cost of internal employee pay in the post-election process, so the county was able to bring in some additional county employees on a per-diem basis for technology support. They have not yet had to hire any additional or external staff.
The funds have also been used to buy updated equipment like laptops to print ballots and a high-speed letter opener to count mail-in ballots faster. It even purchased two global industry battery-powered mobile scissor lift tables to be used at the storage barn for moving voting equipment properly and safely.
“It truly has been transformational to that department,” Seeley said.
Previously, the county hadn’t applied for EIGP funds, with Henry telling SpotlightPA in 2023 that it didn’t want to hire election workers outside of the county’s purview because it was a security risk.
Now, with a different election board and board of commissioners, there’s been a change of heart.
Seeley explained there was some hesitancy on the part of the prior Board of Elections because Crawford County is unique in that each ballot is counted at some point by the members of the board. The board is composed of the commissioners.
One condition with the funding was the pre-canvassing of mail-in and absentee ballots must begin at 7 a.m. on Election Day. The commissioners count those ballots, so the initial fear was that they would no longer be available to visit polling sites and oversee the work being done there.
After regrouping and coming to a consensus, the commissioners now split up their duties so that there is always somebody at the courthouse counting those mail-in and absentee ballots. Seeley said it’s typically Scott Schell who begins the counting at 7 a.m. while he and Henry begin their visits to poll sites. When Henry and Seeley finish their routes, they return to the courthouse, where Schell is then relieved of his counting duties and does his route throughout the county.
Seeley said they have already received this year’s funding, which he said shows the state’s prioritization for secure elections as the state budget passage is still at a standstill, so many grants are not being released. He called the EIGP funds the fastest state funding out there.
Commissioners approved some other grant funds, including the STOP (Services, Training, Officers and Prosecutors) Violence Against Women grant, which is awarded to combat violence against women and to support and enhance services for victims.
Bruce Harlan, executive director of Women’s Services, explained to commissioners that this funding supports a project that’s been going on for almost 30 years in Crawford County. This approval would be a continuation of the grant awarded last year for a total of $375,000 over three years.
That’s $125,000 each year with $50,000 passing through Women’s Services for a courthouse advocate to assist in protection from abuse cases. Another $37,500 goes to Meadville Police Department for a police detective that investigates domestic and sexual violence crimes, like stalking and dating violence. The remaining $37,500 remains with the county to support an assistant district attorney position.
At a work session last week, Crawford County District Attorney Paula DiGiacomo voiced her support for the STOP grant.
Commissioners unanimously approved the grant.
In other news, commissioners approved the payments to Mobilcom for work at the Greiser Road public communications tower site. The tower is one of two being built to better support public safety communication infrastructure in the community. The costs to Mobilcom for the Greiser Road tower include $2,700 for installation of conduit, $10,882 for grading and seeding, and $5,065 to purchase a Zetron gateway to ensure Pennsylvania State Police’s communications interoperability. All are budgeted expenses.