Pennsylvania Statutes Title 25 P.S. Elections & Electoral Districts § 2642. Powers and duties of county boards

(a) To investigate and report to the court of quarter sessions their recommendations on all petitions presented to the court by electors for the division, redivision, alteration, change or consolidation of election districts, and to present to the court petitions for the division, redivision, alteration, change or consolidation of election districts in proper cases.

(b) To select and equip polling places that meet the requirements of this act.

(c) To purchase, preserve, store and maintain primary and election equipment of all kinds, including voting booths, ballot boxes and voting machines, and to procure ballots and all other supplies for elections.

(d) To appoint their own employes, voting machine custodians, and machine inspectors.

(e) To issue certificates of appointment to watchers at primaries and elections.

(f) To make and issue such rules, regulations and instructions, not inconsistent with law, as they may deem necessary for the guidance of voting machine custodians, elections officers and electors.

(g) To instruct election officers in their duties, calling them together in meeting whenever deemed advisable, and to inspect systematically and thoroughly the conduct of primaries and elections in the several election districts of the county to the end that primaries and elections may be honestly, efficiently, and uniformly conducted.

(h) To prepare and publish, in the manner provided by this act, all notices and advertisements in connection with the conduct of primaries and elections, which may be required by law.

(i) To investigate election frauds, irregularities and violations of this act, and to report all suspicious circumstances to the district attorney.

(j) To receive and determine, as hereinafter provided, the sufficiency of nomination petitions, certificates and papers of candidates for county, city, borough, township, ward, school district, poor district, election offices, and local party offices required by law or by party rules to be filed with the board.

(k) To receive from district election officers the returns of all primaries and elections, to canvass and compute the same, and to certify, no later than the third Monday following the primary or election, the results thereof to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, as may be provided by law, and to such other authorities as may be provided by law.  The certification shall include the number of votes received in each election district by each candidate for the General Assembly.

(l) To publicly announce by posting at its office the results of primaries and elections for county, city, borough, township, ward, school district, poor district, election offices, and party offices, if any;  to provide the results to the Secretary of the Commonwealth;  and to issue certificates of election to the successful candidates for said offices.

(m) To prepare and submit, within twenty days after the last day to register to vote in each primary, municipal and general election, a report to the Secretary of the Commonwealth in the form prescribed by him, which shall contain a statement of the total number of electors registered in each election district, together with a breakdown of registration by each political party or other designation.  Copies of said statement shall be furnished, upon request, to the county chairman of each political party and political body.  The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall forthwith submit such information to the Legislative Data Processing Center and shall publicly report the total number of registered electors for each political party or other designation in each county not later than five days prior to the primary, municipal or general election.

(n) To annually prepare and submit to the county commissioners or other appropriating authorities of the county an estimate of the cost of primaries and elections and of the expenses of the board for the ensuing fiscal year.

(o) To perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law.

(p) A county board of elections shall not pay compensation to a judge of elections who wilfully fails to deliver by two o'clock A. M. on the day following the election envelopes;  supplies, including all uncast provisional ballots;  and returns, including all provisional ballots cast in the election district and statements signed under sections 1306 and 1302-D.  1