'Many Jewish voters will be impacted' as Pa. primary falls on Passover

Many of Pittsburgh’s Jewish residents may need to take advantage of mail-in ballots because the April 23 primary is also the first day of Passover.

There are nearly 50,000 Jews in Allegheny County. The holiday falls on Election Day, and will prevent some of them from going to the polls, according to Laura Cherner, director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

The Pennsylvania Legislature was deadlocked last year over proposals to move the primary date altogether to avoid its conflict with the religious holiday, which led to polls being relocated out of synagogues and other Jewish buildings.

In Allegheny County, six polling locations were moved from buildings that will be closed due to the holiday, including Jewish community centers, synagogues and temples, county spokesperson Abigail Gardner said. Those six locations included 16 voting precincts.

The county anticipates those synagogues, temples, and Jewish community centers will return to serving as polling places for the November General Election, Gardner said.

Overall, 60 precincts were moved for the April 23 primary, out of about 1,300 polling places in Allegheny County.

Gardner said the county usually moves at least a dozen polling places every election because buildings that house polling places, such as churches, close or properties change ownership and the new owners don’t want to host elections anymore.

“That is still a large volume, and we encourage every voter to double-check their polling place prior to Election Day,” Gardner said.

Cherner explained that Passover, which marks the exodus of the Jews from enslavement in Egypt, includes several lifestyle adjustments that will affect voting in the Jewish community — despite the polls’ relocation. The holiday lasts from sundown on April 22 through April 30.

Vehicle and technology use are discouraged on the first day of Passover, as well as writing, she said.

“There is a reality that many Jewish voters will be impacted and unable to vote in person,” she said.

Additionally, many Jewish people travel to be with their families for Passover, so many community members will be out of town, preventing them from voting in person on April 23, Cherner said.

She said the federation has been trying to raise awareness of the situation and encourage Jewish residents to prepare ahead of time to request a mail-in or absentee ballot.

Cherner praised Allegheny County’s recent move to add mail-in ballot drop-off locations to help observant Jews vote early. She spoke at an election board meeting last week and thanked county officials for adding a drop-off location in Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branch in Squirrel Hill.

The application can be found on Allegheny County’s website. The last day to register to vote is April 8, the last day to request a mail-in ballot is April 16, and all ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on April 23.

The complete list of polling places in Allegheny County can be found here by clicking on “Polling Place Listing,” which will redirect users to a spreadsheet.

Locations highlighted in yellow have been moved, and the new location is listed, according to Gardner. Locations highlighted in red will be moving, but the new location hasn’t been announced yet, she said.

Arielle Frankston-Morris is the executive director of Teach PA, a Jewish advocacy group based in Philadelphia that works with various Jewish communities, including Jewish day schools, across the state. Teach PA’s goal has been educating Pennsylvania residents to make sure their voices are heard via mail-in ballots.

“Moving polling places is only one part of the problem here,” Frankston-Morris said. “The bigger problem is thousands of voices might be lost because voters can’t go to the polls — and that’s not good for democracy.”

And state Rep. Abigail Salisbury, D-Swissvale, said not everyone might want to vote by mail.

As the only Jewish woman in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Salisbury was instrumental in advocating for the date of the primary being moved altogether.

“This is something we knew was coming,” she said. “I worked as hard as I possibly could to get the primary moved — ultimately, I failed, sadly.”

Not only does it affect Jews, it affects all voters in the state, Salisbury said. She’s worried people will show up at the polling place they’ve voted at their entire lives, get confused and go home instead of voting.

“I think it’s very important that we give people as much notice as we can,” she said.

The Jewish Caucus flagged the issue last spring, Salisbury said, and a group of Jewish voters, rabbis and poll workers came to Harrisburg for several advocacy days following the realization in order to get the primary moved one week earlier.

Despite the effort, it was shut down in the Senate.

“This is a decision that stands to inconvenience at best and disenfranchise at worst a number of people,“ she said.

Salisbury said she believes everyone deserves a chance to vote — no matter their religious observance.

“I just really was saddened by the inability to get this handled — to potentially disenfranchise a religious group based on it being an inconvenience to the state.”