Centre County’s new director of elections set to start next month. Here’s what to know
Centre County has hired a new director of elections who will oversee the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Melanie Bailey will join the Centre County staff after serving as Venango County’s director of elections.
Beth Lechman, Centre County’s previous director of elections, announced her resignation last month. Lechman served in the role for nearly three years and said she left to take another position closer to her family in Westmoreland County.
Bailey will be making $34.66 hourly, and her first day as director will be on Aug. 6, county Communications Coordinator J.J. De La Cruz said.
Centre County Commissioner Steve Dershem said Friday that Lechman helped out with the candidate-finding process and referred Bailey. He thinks that Bailey will be a perfect fit as the county’s new head of the elections department.
“I think Miss Bailey is an outstanding and highly-qualified individual for this position,” Dershem said. “While (Bailey) may not have much experience with running elections, she interviewed really well, she was pretty eager to get over to Centre County and in my opinion, most importantly, she’s very detail-oriented. I wouldn’t feel comfortable hiring someone for this job that isn’t detail-oriented, but that’s not the case here.”
Bailey is entering the position with four and a half years of county government and public service experience, Centre County Administrator John Franek said. She moved into the elections coordinator role in Venango County in 2022 after previously serving as the voter registrar there, according to The Derrick and The News-Herald.
Since the November 2019 election, Pennsylvania has lost 58 election officials — or a combined 293 years of experience, Votebeat reported in February. Secretary of State Al Schmidt has expressed concern about the loss of experienced election directors potentially leading to mistakes.
But Dershem expressed confidence in the new hire.
“I think that with a little bit of proper training, (Bailey) will prove herself to be the best candidate for the job,” Dershem said. “Now, you obviously never know what’s going to happen with election years, but when November rolls around, I think that Centre County residents can look forward to a smoothly-ran election.”
Centre County Commissioner Amber Concepcion expressed a similar sentiment last month in response to Lechman’s resignation.
“I’m confident though that despite (Lechman’s) resignation, we’ll still be able to hold a smooth and successful fall election in Centre County with whoever we bring in to fill the position,” she said.
The county election office has a “core office staff” of five, including the director position, Franek previously told the CDT, adding that staffing levels fluctuate throughout the year based upon the workload.
Bailey could not be reached for comment Friday.