Sheriff's Office: Judge Of Elections Disappears With Voting Equipment, Found Working As Jitney Driver
NORTH VERSAILLES (KDKA) -- Police say the man who was supposed to be overseeing the operations at a North Versailles polling place this Election Day instead disappeared with "essential voting equipment."
According to the Allegheny County Sheriff's Office, 55-year-old Darrin Farmer of North Versailles is the current Judge of Elections at Precinct #1-2, which is located at the North Versailles Senior Center on Greensburg Pike.
The Sheriff's Office says the polling precinct was supposed to open at 7 a.m., but was delayed for three hours when Farmer went missing and was later found working as a jitney driver.
"From what we understand made an intentional decision to operate today as a jitney driver and not as a Judge of Elections. He had everything that was needed to properly operate a voting precinct," said Chief Deputy Keving Kraus, of the Allegheny County Sheriff's Office.
Farmer disappeared after dropping his wife off at the Walmart on Route 30 around 6:30 a.m., the Sheriff's Office says. She went into the buy refreshments for the volunteers who would be working at the polls.
When he didn't return, she called the North Versailles Police. The Allegheny County Elections Court Hotline was also notified of the incident.
The Sheriff's Office says they used satellite technology and eventually found Farmer's vehicle on Washington Avenue in Swissvale. They pulled the car over and found Farmer and two other people inside.
According to the Sheriff's Office, Farmer told deputies that he never went to the voting precinct. Instead, investigators say he instead "decided to work as a jitney driver collecting money for fares throughout the day."
Judge of Elections who work at polling places are each paid at least $125 on Election Day.
"He was operating as a jitney, which is kind of a cab service of sorts and he was picking people up and transporting them to different parts of the county for a fee," said Chief Deputy Kraus.
Farmer was taken into custody and the two people who were with him were released.
The Sheriff's Office says they also found all the missing voting equipment and materials like special and absentee ballots and binders of the precinct's registered voters in Farmer's car.
He is now being held in the Allegheny County Jail on charges of tampering with public records, obstruction a government function, failure to perform duty and hindering or delaying performance duty.
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