Toni Grupp, 70, of Butler, hands a pamphlet about Butler County Common Pleas Judge candidate Joe Kubit to Holly Hartzell, 64, of Butler, outside the Butler City Precinct 5 on Tuesday. Standing behind Hartzell is Tom Hartzell, 65, of Butler. For the primary election, this precinct was located at the Salvation Army on Cunningham Street.

Although Tuesday's primary election proceeded smoothly for the most part across Butler County, bumps arose early as county commissioners rushed to fill election worker positions and a handful of voters struggled to find their new polling location.

Butler County solicitor Wil White said that as late as 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, commissioners were scrambling to fill key volunteer positions that had been vacated at the last second.

White was speaking for the county election bureau instead of director Aaron Sheasley, who White said was ill.

As polls opened two hours later, at least a dozen voters showed up to the former polling location for Butler City Precinct 5, First Baptist Church Youth Center at 228 W. Jefferson St. The polling location was moved in November to the Salvation Army at 313 W. Cunningham St. due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I showed up at quarter to 7. No signs. No one here. And other people started showing up too,” said Molly Nowakowski-Wilbert, a volunteer for Donald Shearer's Butler City Council campaign. “Some people came and said they had to get going to work in Pittsburgh. They wouldn't be back until after 8 tonight.”She saw about 14 people at the First Baptist Church Youth Center between 7 and 7:10 a.m.“One woman got out her phone. 'It says right here. It's supposed to be here,'” Nowakowski-Wilbert said, recounting the conversation.It appeared the Department of State's “Find Your Polling Station” tool hadn't been updated to reflect the new location. Later Tuesday, the tool reflected correct locations.“I was not aware of it,” White said of the polling place confusion. “I speak for the county, and I have no control over what the state was posting, but I know our webpage was updated, and the full page ad we ran in the paper was updated and current.”As Nowakowski-Wilbert learned that she needed to go to the Salvation Army instead, she was informed signs would be added outside the youth center. A handmade sign instructed voters to go to the Salvation Army's rear entrance across from the farmers market to vote.“With so many mail-ins last November, I think people didn't realize it had changed,” said voter Toni Grupp of Butler. “Your heart feels for those early birds who couldn't vote.”In Jefferson Township, incumbent supervisor candidate Lois Rankin said there was confusion over the polling place for Precinct 2. She said the county election bureau did not notify voters in Precinct 2 that their polling place had changed from the Jefferson Grange to Calvary Baptist Church. Many voters were pulling into Precinct 1 at the township building asking where they should vote.White said that polling places were changed last year.“So every registered voter would have received a letter then, and it would have been posted outside (the former precinct) for the last election,” White said.

White explained that each voting place needs to have a judge of elections and at least one election inspector per political party. In the 48 hours preceding the polls opening Tuesday morning, White said three judges or inspectors canceled for Tuesday.Commissioners were working into early Tuesday morning to fill the roles, but successfully did so before polls opened.“That's problematic,” White said. “You usually want someone with experience, and you need specific training.”The judge of elections and inspectors are the people who run the proceedings in each precinct. They are in charge and sign off on the results at the end of the night.“In a perfect world, we would have a judge and both a majority and minority inspector at every precinct,” White said.The county was able to train two new people Monday to fill the roles and had to relocate an inspector who had previously received the training into a judge position early Tuesday morning, according to White.

Once the polls opened, however, White said the day went without major incident.“It's been pretty smooth,” White said at 2:30 p.m.He said he dealt with only minor issues as the day went on. Some candidates' supporters being a little “overzealous,” a poll watcher inadvertently interacting with voters and a few scanners acting “finicky” were the most White had to deal with while traveling from precinct to precinct.“Turnout has been interesting,” he continued. “Some places it's pretty busy; other places are slow.”White said that somewhere like Winfield Township, which had numerous candidates on the ballot, had more turnout than some other places.“It's a little lower than I would expect, coming out of a November election,” White said. “But overall, (it's) about average for a primary.”The county sent out 10,347 mail-in ballots and, as of Tuesday, 7,529, or 70.8%, had been returned. White said that number was consistent with the last primary, which surprised him.“I had thought that because of the sheer number of mail-in ballots we had in the November election, they would carry over into this one,” White said. “That didn't happen. This primary has been consistent with last year's primary.”Most of the mail-in ballots had been opened by 3 p.m., and counting began shortly thereafter.<i>Eagle staff writer Paula Grubbs contributed to this report.</i>