Flooding Closes Some Bradford County Polling Places | News

It is exactly one week until election day, November 8. That also marks two months since the historic flooding in our area. Flood damage in parts on Bradford County has caused some polling places to close for next week's election.

Elections officials decided to close three polling places in Bradford County after they found out those places just could not be clean and safe for voters in time for the November 8 election.

Those closed polling places are in Athens, Monroe Borough and Towanda. Voters will have to go to another location next Tuesday.

The remnants of flooding are still seen at the Hurley`s Supermarket Warehouse in Towanda. It is one of the borough's polling places. Employees said election day snuck up on them this year.

"We have the fire department coming in tomorrow and they're going hose out all of the mud completely. We're going to be using brooms and squeegees to clean everything out. Construction will begin in probably another month," said Kathy Fleming of Hurley's Supermarkets.

Hurley's is one of three polling places in Bradford County damaged by flooding. Now, signs hang on the doors of the damaged polling places, telling voters where they can go. Election day is only a week away, and the two month anniversary the September flood. Officials with the county board of elections said they weren't expecting the flood to effect election day.

"Not when it first occurred, but when election time came around, we had three that were damaged, two were physically damaged and one was mold related," said Bradford County Elections Director Renee Smithkors.

Some voters in Towanda will now cast their votes at the Towanda Fire Department, in the same building as the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center. Officials said they will be here helping flood victims for at least another two weeks.

A polling place in Athens was also changed. In Monroe Borough voters can now go to the Monroe Hose Company on Burlington Turnpike since the usual polling place was so heavily damaged.

"The mold is coming up out of the floors and over the walls. We didn't want our poll workers and the voters sitting in that all day," Smithkors added.

Bradford County voters can go to the county board of elections wed site to check on their polling places.