Editor’s note: This story was amended March 20, 2021 to reflect the correct municipality where the one remaining residential polling place is located.

Twelve polling places are being moved to new locations in Westmoreland County for the May primary, including one that has been in a Wyano home since the 1960s.

The polling place that has been in Betty Tokarcik’s South Huntingdon basement for decades will be relocated about a half a mile away to the Veteran’s Club of Wyano. Elections director JoAnn Sebastiani said she is appreciative of Tokarcik’s service to voters. The county received complaints about the polling place being inside a house, and officials considered the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic in deciding to move it, she said.

Tokarcik, 85, has run the polling place in the ground-level basement of the home her late husband built on Third Street. There are 312 registered voters in that precinct. Tokarcik could not be reached for comment.

Another polling place in a Van Meter home, where there are 85 voters registered, will remain there, Sebastiani said.

The county elections board approved the changes Friday. In some cases, the previous polling places no longer wanted to participate in the elections. In other cases, new locations were better suited to handle voters. There will be more space and parking and better accommodations for those with disabilities, Sebastiani said.

“My goal is to get them all permanent,” she said.

The changes are:

• Derry Borough, Second Ward: from Trinity Lutheran Church to St. Joseph Rectory, 117 S. Ligonier St.

• Derry Township, Scalp Level: from Alpha Lions Den Ministries to St. Joseph Rectory, 117 S. Ligonier St.

• Hempfield Township #2, Alwine: from North Hempfield Fire Department to Hempfield Township Athletic Complex, 220 Forbes Trail Road.

• Hempfield Township #6, Luxor: from Luxor Fire Department to Hannastown Fire Department, 189 Front St., Hannastown. Luxor is merging with Bovard Fire Department, and the station will close this weekend.

• Latrobe, Fourth Ward: from Latrobe Freewill Hose Company to Latrobe Elementary School, 20 Cedar St.

• Monessen 4-2: from Grand Plaza to St. Spyridon Hellenic Center, 119 St. Spyridon Lane.

• New Kensington 4-1: from St. Joseph Parish Center to First Evangelical Church, 221 Ridge. Ave.

• North Huntingdon 1-1: from Westmoreland City Fire Department to Westmoreland City Primitive Methodist Church, 1246 Fifth St.

• North Huntingdon 6-2: from Friendship Baptist Church to Irwin Fire Department, 518 Western Ave.

• Penn Township 2-2: from Harrison City Fire Department to St. Barbara Church, 111 Raymaley Road.

• South Huntingdon, Wyano: from Tokarcik residence to Veteran’s Club of Wyano, 2210 First St.

• Vandergrift, First Ward: from the public library to The Center on Franklin, 262 Franklin Ave.

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