Voting by mail? Time to drop off your ballot in person, Pa. officials warn

Pennsylvania’s chief election official on Friday urged voters who are holding onto or applying for mail-in ballots to deliver their envelopes in person amid concerns that the U.S. Postal Service won’t deliver their ballots on time.

“Election Day is just days away. Do not delay,” Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid said. “Return your ballot now so your voice will be heard on Nov. 2.”

The deadline to register to vote in the upcoming election has passed, but registered voters still can request mail-in and absentee ballots through 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Those who do so are encouraged to return their ballots in person immediately.

“Although county election boards will accept voted mail-in ballots until 8 p.m. on Election Day, voters should not wait until the last minute,” Degraffenreid said. “And a postmark doesn’t count.”

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Those who applied for a mail-in ballot but instead want to vote at their polling place on Election Day can do so by bringing their ballot and secrecy envelope and turning them over to elections workers. Those who lose their ballots will have to vote provisionally.

Postal workers were set to begin delivering more than 124,000 early-voting ballots requested to Allegheny County voters earlier this month.

Residents can drop off ballots at the county’s main elections office — which will be operating under extended and weekend hours in coming weeks — as well as inside the lobby of the City-County Building on Grant Street in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Drop boxes remain in Westmoreland County

Some regions of Western Pennsylvania have more options.

A drop box for mail-in ballots is available at the Westmoreland County Courthouse and at several regional locations countywide. They are being accepted at the Westmoreland County Community College’s facilities in New Kensington, Murrysville and the Youngwood area. Other options include Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity and the county’s adult probation office on Riverview Drive in Monessen.

Greg McCloskey, acting director for the Westmoreland election bureau, said more than 19,000 ballots were mailed to voters countywide.

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How to request a ballot

The fastest way to apply for a mail-in or absentee ballot in Allegheny County is to do so online at the county’s elections division website or VotesPA.com/ApplyMailBallot.

Voters also can apply in person at the county elections office in Downtown Pittsburgh, on the sixth floor of 542 Forbes Ave.

Elections staff can assist if a ballot has not been received, an error was made or a ballot was damaged.

Each application gets verified to “ensure the voter is registered to vote, hasn’t already applied for a ballot or has any other barriers to voting,” elections officials said.

Completed ballots are secured and stored in the county elections warehouse in Pittsburgh’s North Side, where envelopes will remain locked in a room monitored by cameras until 7 a.m. on Election Day, which is the earliest the ballots can be opened and counted, per state law.

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