Controversial Bucks polling site moved

The Bucks County Board of Elections voted yesterday to move a controversial polling location to a spot more convenient to a group of aggrieved voters who are suing the board in federal court.

By a 2-1 vote, the polling site in Bensalem was moved from Polanka Hall about one mile south on Knights Road to the St. Mary Wellness Center.

The polling site is the center of the federal lawsuit. In March 2007, the board removed the poll from the Creekside Apartments, where it had been for three decades, to Polanka Hall.

The decision was made despite protests from residents of the apartment complex, home of about 75 percent of the district's voters. The residents, many of them elderly, infirm or without vehicles, complained that the new site was inaccessible to them.

The board said it had acted on complaints that Creekside's crime rate made some voters feel threatened. But the lawsuit contends that Republican operatives conspired to disenfranchise the largely Democratic population of Creekside, many of whom are minorities.

That claim is pending in U.S. District Court.

County Commissioners Chairman James Cawley said yesterday that he suggested the St. Mary location as a compromise.

The wellness center is adjacent to Creekside, is connected by a paved walkway, and is closer to some residents than the Creekside community center, site of the original poll.

Polanka Hall required a mile-long trek along busy Knights Road, where there are no sidewalks, and the crossing of Street Road, a five-lane thoroughfare that carries 58,000 vehicles daily.

Cawley, a Republican, said the new location also takes into account the security concerns of other voters who felt threatened at Creekside. "The people of [the district] are going to have a safe, accessible polling site," he said.

The vote provoked partisan bickering, however.

Several who attended demanded that the board - composed of the county's three commissioners - return the polling place to Creekside. The critics cited testimony from a recent court hearing that they said supported their claims of a Republican plot.

Cawley said he could not discuss the lawsuit, but contended that the new site was preferable to Creekside or Polanka Hall.

Democratic Commissioner Diane Marseglia was among those wanting the original site restored. Doing so, she said, "will put out the fire."

Cawley and fellow Republican Commissioner Charles Martin voted in favor of the St. Mary site. Marseglia voted against it, prompting another heated exchange.

"I fail to understand . . . how anyone could vote against this," Cawley said, accusing the critics of waging a "political witchhunt."

Retorted Marseglia: "I am not about to provide any of you [Republicans] with political cover."