Westmoreland elections bureau to hire deputy director

Westmoreland County is seeking candidates to fill a deputy director’s position for the elections bureau ahead of the 2021 campaign season to help ease the burden on an office that was understaffed and pushed to its limits last fall.

Applications will be accepted through Jan. 20.

“We need to be fully staffed,” said Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani.

The county is seeking applicants with one to three years of experience in elections work and will give priority to those with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. Additional details about the job are posted on the county’s website.

The elections bureau operated this fall without a deputy director to assist Sebastiani, who was hired in late August and oversaw a record 81% turnout in the Nov. 3 election. More than than 206,000 ballots were cast as the bureau deployed a new touch-screen voter system and sent more than 70,000 mail-in ballots. Increased turnout resulted in an extensive counting effort that was further impacted by a coronavirus outbreak among staffers.

Sebastiani’s original deputy, Scott Sistek, was ousted in September. He briefly ran the elections bureau last summer after the previous director resigned. Officials originally said Sistek was fired after serving a one week suspension for an undisclosed matter. His status was changed in December to indicate he had resigned.

Sebastiani said the lack of a deputy presented additional challenges for the elections bureau during its busiest period.

“Really, for the efficiency of the office, we need every position filled,” Sebastiani said.

She said she hopes to have a new deputy on the job before political candidates begin circulating nominating petitions in February for the spring primary, which will be held May 18.

Hundreds of races are slated to appear on this year’s ballots, including county row offices, municipal government and school board seats, tax collectors and judges of elections.