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Jackie Brown, of Butler, and Don Land, of Clinton Township, were keeping a chilly vigil Tuesday morning outside the polling place at VFW Post 249.
Brown and Land were campaigning outside the VFW at 429 W. Jefferson St., for rival candidates for a seat on the Butler County Court of Common Pleas.
Both offered literature to people going in to vote.
But being on opposite sides in a county judicial race wasn't going to make things ugly between the two.
“We're both Navy vets. After today's over, we can be friends again,” Land said.
Joseph Leahy of Butler said it was the judges' races that got him out to vote.
“I would say judges. I would say mainly that's the one, the supreme court justice,” Leahy said.
Jack Ferguson, of Butler, said the Butler mayoral race was what brought him to the polls.
“I wanted to do my best to see Bob Dandoy becomes mayor. I've been doing my little part,” he said.
Ferguson said his closest friend worked with the Democrat and urged him to give Dandoy his vote.
“I've met him; he's very friendly,” he said.
Shawn Gray, of Butler, said it was the chance to vote for one of Dandoy's rivals for the mayor's chair, Republican Fred Reese, that brought him to the VFW post Tuesday morning.
“I know him. He's been a businessman in the town for many years,” Gray said.
Brown, who had been outside the VFW since the polls opened, said turnout was sporadic.
“It's been a constant one or two people. Every five or 10 minutes we get our spurts,” she said.
At the voting site at Trinity Lutheran Church, 120 Sunset Drive, the number of voters arriving seemed more constant.
Among those were Duane and Norma Kyper, of Center Township, who said the chance to pick township supervisors and some of the judge positions brought them to the church.
Still, Norma Kyper said, sometimes she wondered if the act of voting was futile.
“The idea of what came in the mail and what you hear, politics has gotten so bad you don't know anymore if anyone is doing anything to do what they say in the campaign,” she said.
However, she added, “You can't complain if you don't vote.”
Her husband, Duane, said the couple had prepared for Tuesday by getting a sample ballot from the Butler County Courthouse.
“We do our homework. We've been doing this for a long time,” he said.
Nearly everyone expressed confidence in the voting process.
Campaign worker Brown said, “I did an write-in ballot. They emailed me and told me they got my ballot, so I knew it got there.”
She said it was a relief to know her vote registered, because she was uncertain if the U.S. Postal Service would deliver ballots on time.
Gray said he preferred Tuesday's ballots that had to be filled out by hand before being fed into a reader.
“I like the way it went. The electronics, I don't trust,” Gray said. “I do have a problem trusting the election, the fact that it can be recounted.”
However, Duane Kyper said he liked the electronic ballot.
“I don't see any problem with them,” he said. “People who complain don't know how it works.
“The results are printed and posted on the outside of the polling station door,” he said.
In Cranberry and Adams townships, specific elections brought some voters out.
Seneca Valley High School student Anya Conway, 18, voted for the first time at the Grace Community Church polling station with her father, Bill Conway. The election for Cranberry supervisors was one of the main reasons they came to vote.
“Mr. (Mike) Manipole was her gym teacher — that is one of the reasons she wanted to come up and vote,” Conway said.
“I think he's really fit for the position,” Anya said.
At the Adams municipal building, political campaigners for a number of candidates handed out flyers to voters as they cast their votes after work.
Adams resident Mike Parham said that no specific election was his main motivator for coming out to vote Tuesday evening.
“I make a point to come out and vote in all of the elections,” Parham said. “I think they all count.”
Mary Ann Croop came to vote particularly for the Mars Area School Board, where five candidates are competing for four seats, but said that she wasn't yet sure who she would vote for. “I have grandkids in the school, and I was a nurse at the school,” Croop said. “I'm still thinking on something. Right now I'm kind of between.”
Eagle Staff Writer Julia Maruca contributed to this report.
