While voters are deciding today which candidates to support, they know there is little concern about where they need to go to cast their vote.

That’s because most polling sites for Butler County’s 89 precincts are the same year after year.

Any school or other government building gets no money for hosting a polling site. Nongovernmental buildings, such as churches and fire halls, get $75.

Shari Brewer, county director of elections, said that in general polling places remain in the same place for many years to prevent confusion and excessive cost associated with relocating them.

“We try not to move them,” Brewer said. “Each time you move them you have to mail out a notice and the board of elections has to approve it.”

How those locations are chosen involves multiple factors, Brewer said.

“We have to go out and inspect the site and see if they meet ADA (handicapped accessible) requirements and be within the voting precinct,” Brewer said. “Location plays an important part in it. Accessibility is important — Is there enough parking? What’s the traffic impact?”

Sometimes its not a question of moving a polling site, but adding one.

That’s what happened in Adams Township, where Butler attorney Mike Hnath suggested to the former head of the county election bureau years ago that the growing municipality needed another polling site.

“He said, ‘There’s one catch,’” recalled Hnath, who is a township resident, “‘You have to be the judge of elections.’”

Hnath was appointed five years ago as the new ward’s judge of elections, and looked at several sites in the western part of the township before settling on the Adams Ridge Clubhouse because it has ample space for voters, plentiful parking, and is safely accessible from Route 228 via a traffic signal.

Some sites continue with their regular business while the voting goes on elsewhere in the building.

For example, in Saxonburg, borough residents and customers of the Saxonburg Area Authority can access the office on Election Day.

However, borough manager Mary Papik said the borough office generally gets less drop-in business on Election Day than on the usual weekday.

She also said that any councilmember who is up for election cannot enter the building while voting is under way.

The Evangel Heights Church in Buffalo Township, where machines are set up in the main foyer of the sanctuary, isn’t significantly impacted by Election Day.

“Not really. They come and do their thing,” said Pastor Lorna Albanese about poll workers.

One of the busiest voting spots in the county is the Cranberry Township Municipal Center, which is usually a hub of community activities, but it hosts three of the township’s nine precincts on Election Day.

Cranberry manager Jerry Andree said the elections cause minimal disruption of programs and services in the municipal center, but added it’s worth it if people come out to vote.

“We certainly want to make it as convenient as possible for residents,” he said.

In Harmony this will be the second year that the polling place is at the borough building, 217 Mercer St. In the past, voting was done at Stewart Hall about a block away.

To avoid any confusion, majority inspector Jim Hulings said he will put up a series of signs directing people down the road to the borough building.

Polling places are manned by a minimum of three people, Brewer said, one judge of elections and two inspectors — all three of which are elected for four-year terms.

The judge of elections earns $135 per day and inspectors earn $130 per day.

Brewer said that if more employees are needed, clerks are appointed. Clerks also make $130 per day.

The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, which makes a long day for the poll workers.

Eagle staff writers Paula Grubbs, Jared Stonesifer, Joe Genco, Jeff Forward and Tom Victoria contributed to this report.