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A call for public servants for the 2025 municipal election cycle was announced during the Feb. 20 meeting of the Lebanon County Elections Board.
The elections board, which consists of the county commissioners, convened immediately after their biweekly meeting was adjourned.
Read More: Considering a run for office? Now’s the time to circulate a petition for the primary
Sean Drasher, director of Lebanon County Elections, told elections board members that numerous seats are open across the county for school boards, borough councils and township supervisors for the 2025 municipal election as well as 180 elected poll worker positions.
“As you know, it is a municipal year and we have close to 300 seats across the county, across all types of ballots,” said Drasher. “Currently, after a week, we have about 40 to 50 petitions out, and that’s it. So we have a lot of open seats and we’re hoping to get a lot of incumbents coming back and a lot of new candidates coming in to pick up their paperwork. But we need to start driving that interest as much as possible.”
Within county government, there is one seat each for district attorney, register of wills and sheriff offices up for election with each position serving a four-year term. At this time, the only announced contested race at the county level is for the district attorney’s office.
Republican incumbent Pier Hess Graf and Republican challenger Michael Light II have both announced their intentions to run for the district attorney row office seat.
Another potentially contested race is for City of Lebanon mayor (four-year term). Two, four-year council positions in city government will also be decided during this election cycle. The magisterial district judge seat in the City of Lebanon (52-1-01) currently held by Maria Dissinger will be voted on this year, too.
In Pennsylvania, Lebanon County voters will also select two state judges that will both serve 10-year terms. These statewide races that will be on the ballot at Lebanon County voting precincts include one seat each for judge of the Superior Court and judge of the Commonwealth Court.
Locally, Drasher said there is a need for elected poll workers, including a judge of elections and two inspectors for each of Lebanon County’s 60 voting precincts.
“We need them to actually run,” said Drasher. “These are all people who say if you need a spot filled, I’ll take it. But at this point we need people from their home precincts to actually run. It’s people who do want to run, but they think, ‘It is just a poll worker job, I don’t have to run.’”
That mentality is problematic, added Drasher.
“No, you do (have to run). You have to come pick up your packet, get your signatures or it will end up with someone writing in their name and we, as a board, will be back here in six weeks to vote on the tiebreakers on the hundreds and hundreds of people who only have one vote,” stated Drasher.
Drasher told the board the election petition window opened last Tuesday. Candidates have until March 11 to file their signed petitions and other required paperwork for the primary election on May 20.
“It’s been slow, slower than expected,” said Drasher. “The weather has also been lousy, so we’re hoping that maybe that’s all that it was.”
In noting that only one set of paperwork had been completely processed and another was being processed by his office, Drasher encouraged all interested candidates to return their election paperwork as soon as possible.
“I hope that in a month I’m able to tell you that there are at least 300 petitions filed with us,” he said. “That would make me very happy.”
After the meeting, Drasher re-iterated to LebTown that this is an opportunity for local residents to become actively involved in elections at the local level – especially for the poll worker elected positions. Also up for election this cycle are four school board seats on five of Lebanon County’s six public school districts and five seats in the Northern Lebanon School District.
“Do it. Come out. Get involved,” Drasher told LebTown about the 180 poll worker elected positions in Lebanon County. “This is your chance. Get here, get involved. You can do it. You can be a part of the process.”
Also during the meeting, Drasher presented an update on his department’s annual mailing that was recently sent to those voters who requested a mail-in ballot last year.
“The clarification on that is that if you request a yearly mail-in ballot, you are not automatically sent a yearly mail-in ballot,” he said. “You have to confirm it every year. That way if someone passes away or moves and doesn’t inform us, we aren’t just sending out ballots. They have to actively respond to us to get a ballot even though they said they want one every year.”
Joy Scarbrough, deputy director of voter registration/elections, said the department sent about 22,000 mailings to those voters who had received a mail-in ballot last year.
“They need to return this in order to automatically be sent all ballots for the remainder of the year,” said Scarbrough. “We’ve received about 300 back and another 300 via online. This year we went to a postcard-type permanent, mail-in application.”
Lebanon County also honored those voters who have voted continuously for 50 years in a row in general elections without missing a single election during the meeting.
Any Pennsylvania resident who meets that criteria is automatically eligible for the Pennsylvania Voter Hall of Fame. This year, 13 people met that mark and were honored with citations from Gov. Josh Shapiro as filed with the state by Lebanon County election officials.
“Our clerks have been looking and they found these on their own,” said Drasher about departmental efforts to recognize those who qualify for this distinguished honor.
The 13 Lebanon County voters inducted into the Pennsylvania Voter Hall of Fame for 2024 are:
- Janet Bird
- Paul Bird
- Kathleen Daubert
- Corwin Erdman
- John Feather
- Margaret Fidler
- Robert Fidler
- Sara Ann Haak
- Judith Heagy
- Eileen Heeter
- William Heeter
- Steven Shultz
- Dawn Strickler
County commissioners meeting
Earlier that morning, county commissioners took action to approve two applications for the second round of opioid settlement funds to be filed with the state for disbursement to the Lebanon County Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse for programs it administers.
Read More: Lebanon County Commissioners approve 2nd round of opioid funding request
Nearly $3.63 million is available to Lebanon County over a 13-year period as part of the second wave of opioid settlement funding, according to James Donmoyer, director of Lebanon County Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse.
On Wednesday, Feb. 19, Donmoyer presented information on the second wave of funding and how those dollars will be spent and also provided an update on the first wave of funding, which totaled nearly $4.18 million.
In other news, commissioners unanimously voted to:
- Purchase five Mitsubishi P series ductless cooling systems from Annville-based Precision LLC for the municipal building’s computer servers and installation of those servers totaling $68,883.78.
- Pay 11 provider contracts for the Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities/Early Intervention Department for fiscal year 2024/25 totaling $73,868. Five contracts were for Intellectual Disabilities, four for Early Intervention and two for building renovations to an HVAC system.
- Name Steve Wohlbruck to replace Denise Thomas as the representative of the Myerstown Community Library to the Library System of Lebanon County system board. Thomas resigned to assume the role of president of the Myerstown Library board. Wohlbruck will finish her term, which expires on Dec. 31, 2027.
- Appoint Phil Hess to the Clarence Schock Memorial Park at Governor Dick Park advisory board. Hess replaces Harrison Diehl, who resigned from the board last year due to not wanting to drive at night.
- Grant real estate exemptions for seven fully disabled veterans or their families.
- Approve the minutes of their Feb. 6 meeting, and executive sessions on Feb. 5, 11 and 12.
- Accept the treasurer’s report and make various personnel transactions. During personnel transactions, the commissioners also approved the civil service
The next meeting of the Lebanon County Commissioners is on Thursday, March 6 at 9:30 a.m. in Room 207 of the Lebanon County Municipal Building, 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon. County commissioners meet the first and third Thursdays of each month.
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