Counties benefiting from state鈥檚 new 鈥榚lection integrity鈥� grant program
news@greenecountymessenger.com
Counties across Pennsylvania are accepting an influx of money through the state鈥檚 new 鈥渆lection integrity鈥� grant program designed to bolster the ranks of poll workers and ensure mail-in and absentee ballots are counted on Election Day.
The state Legislature in July passed Act 88 that earmarked $45 million in this year鈥檚 budget to be distributed to each county with a list of conditions they must follow in order to use the money for election-related expenses.
The grant program is designed to help elections offices, but has several strings attached that would require a county to pay the money back if the mandates are not followed. The main condition is requiring counties that accept the money to begin counting mail-in and absentee ballots beginning at 7 a.m. on Election Day 鈥渨ithout interruption鈥� until all are tabulated. Such ballots that are received on Election Day also must be counted beginning at 8 p.m. that day.
The act still does not permit mail-in or absentee ballots to be counted before Election Day, which is the reason additional money is being offered to counties for them to hire more workers to complete that process as soon as possible.
鈥淭he idea behind the money is to get the counties that were not counting their mail-in ballots until Wednesday or Thursday to get them to start counting the mail-in ballots on Election Day,鈥� Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said. 鈥淭he counties not counting the day-of and the reasons they couldn鈥檛 count the day-of is that they didn鈥檛 have the resources or the funds for people to come in to do the work.鈥�
That wasn鈥檛 an issue for Washington and Fayette counties, which regularly completed their canvassing for mail-in ballots on Election Day. But Greene County historically began tabulating those votes the following day and continued sometimes through the rest of the week before finishing the count.
Greene County will receive $113,102, which commission Chairman Mike Belding said equates to about half of their elections office鈥檚 budget. Belding said their first purchase with the money is a new ballot folder for mail-ins to be placed in envelopes so it鈥檚 not done manually. They may also increase pay for poll workers.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no way we can turn it down. You鈥檙e just going to have to play through the pain, if you will, to come up with those individuals,鈥� Belding said about hiring more people to begin counting mail-in ballots on Election Day and not stopping until the job is done. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just going to have to work hard to get those people. But we couldn鈥檛 pass up that funding. It鈥檚 too much money to look the other way.鈥�
The amount of money distributed to each county is calculated by its voter registration numbers. In comparison, Washington County will receive $733,755 while Fayette County is getting $406,808. The commissioners in each of the three counties here approved accepting the funds earlier this month during separate board meetings.
There are nine approved uses for the money, including new equipment, ballot printing, poll worker training and pay, election transparency upgrades, maintenance activities and the hiring of more workers to pre-canvass and canvass mail-in ballots. Counties can no longer accept money from third-party private organizations, such as the so-called 鈥淶ucker Bucks鈥� from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, although Washington, Greene and Fayette counties had never received those types of grants in past elections.
Ostrander said her office in Washington County will make some adjustments, such as counting the mail-in ballots received on Election Day immediately after the polls close. In addition, counties are now required to post the unofficial number of mail-in and absentee ballots on their websites. There are also provisions for 鈥渞isk-limiting audits鈥� and voter registration reviews, although Ostrander said they previously were doing those procedures anyway.
Ostrander said since the county already does many of the aspects required in the legislation, they鈥檒l be able to use some of the money to purchase additional equipment. But most likely they鈥檒l use the grant to round out the department鈥檚 $1.5 million budget using the state money, which will allow for county tax dollars to be spent elsewhere.
鈥淲e鈥檙e getting money that鈥檚 equivalent to half of our budget. The things that are eligible uses are things we already budget,鈥� Ostrander said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be able to use this money from the state and not county funds to pay for it. If we want to order another high-speed scanner, then it鈥檚 allocated so we won鈥檛 have to use extra Washington County taxpayer money.鈥�
Fayette County Elections Director MaryBeth Kuznik said they鈥檙e still trying to figure out how to use their allotment.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to tell. Many counties are already doing these practices,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l have a sit-down to see how it will be used.鈥�
The only concern for her is the requirement to continuously count mail-in ballots until the job is finished. Larger counties, such as Allegheny and Philadelphia, take several days to tabulate everything and work overnight shifts to complete the process. However, even when there was a heavy volume of mail-in votes in the 2020 presidential election, both Washington and Fayette counties completed the job that same day.
鈥淢any elections directors I talked to, the worry is that if we have a huge influx of ballots we鈥檒l have to count for two or three days without a break,鈥� Kuznik said. 鈥淭his past (primary) election, we were done well before the Election Day (in-person vote totals) started coming back from the polls.鈥�
The money was to be distributed by Sept. 1.
Washington County 鈥� $733,755
Fayette County 鈥� $406,808
Greene County 鈥� $113,102