Clock ticking to request mail-in ballot for primary election
Time is running out to request a mail-in ballot for the May 19 primary, and elections officials from the region are telling people not to wait until the last minute to fill them out and return them.
The deadline to apply is at 5 p.m. Tuesday – either in person at the voter’s county elections office or on the state elections website at www.vote.pa.gov – but that gives little time for them to be sent out to voters and returned before the polls close on Election Day at 8 p.m. May 19.
“We’re coming down to the wire now,” said Jared Edgreen, who is the Greene County commissioner chairman and also heads the county’s elections board.
Elections workers from across the state are working hard getting the mail-in ballots out to people who have requested them and processing the ones that are already being returned.
In Greene County, the elections office has received 1,693 requests for ballots so far, with 1,186 coming from Democrats and the other 507 going to Republicans. Edgreen said he’s instructed the staff to let people know if they’re making a last-minute request, they should return the ballot back to the office by hand rather than rely on the mail.
“They don’t expect many more to come in, but if they do, be sure to let them know that if they drop it in the mail it might not make it here in time so you can drop it off,” Edgreen said. “You can also fill out (the application) at the counter and (vote) right there.”
MaryBeth Kuznik, who is the elections director in Fayette County, calls that “counter voting,” which is a form of early voting in which voters make the request in-person at the office and then fill out a paper mail-in ballot to make their choices.
“If they want to come in, as long as they’re in the door by 5 p.m. (Tuesday) we can give them a ballot and they can vote right here,” Kuznik said.
The process takes a little time for the office to verify information on the voter and then print out the ballot, but Kuznik said people who bring proper identification can expedite that effort. As of Friday, the Fayette County elections office has sent out 7,332 ballots, with Democrats requesting 5,392 of them and the GOP asking for 1,940. So far, 2,864 have been returned with 10 days until the election.
Kuznik suggested anyone who receives their ballot at this point might want to consider hand delivering them to the elections office so as not to miss the election night deadline since ballots received after 8 p.m. May 19 will not be counted. Voters must bring in their own ballots to their local county elections office,” Kuznik said.
“At that point, I would recommend they hand carry it back,” Kuznik said. “The mail is taking a lot longer than it used to. It’s getting within that last week. Try to bring it in.”
Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander echoed that suggestion, and said her elections office on the ground floor of the Crossroads Center building in Washington will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday. Her office has sent out 13,085 ballots, with 9,410 going to Democrats and 3,675 sent to GOP voters.
“The best options are either to go online (to request a mail-in ballot) or come to our office in person,” Ostrander said. “If they have not put their ballot in the mail by Thursday (May 14), the best thing is to hand deliver it.”
For more information about mail-in ballots, go to the state’s elections website at www.vote.pa.gov.