Drop boxes for spring primary under consideration in Westmoreland County

Westmoreland commissioners said Wednesday ballot drop boxes likely will be placed in several locations throughout the county prior to the May 18 primary.

The total number of boxes, their locations and dates they will operate have yet to be finalized, but plans are expected to be announced in a week to 10 days, commissioners said.

“We need to make sure we have the proper places, location and workers,” said Commissioner Sean Kertes. “I’m not going to put the cart before the horse. I want to make sure everything is in line and we have everything we need. Let’s get everything together, and we’ll come back and make a determination from that point on.”

Five drop box locations were used over two weekends prior to last November’s general election.

Each location, which included the county’s probation office in Monessen, Westmoreland County Community College sites in Murrysville, Youngwood and New Kensington, as well as the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, were manned by county staffers and watched by security cameras. Another drop box inside the courthouse was available around-the-clock every day until polls closed on Election Day.

About 80,000 voters applied for mail-in ballots last fall. Nearly 60,000 were cast.

Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said the county so far processed more than 13,000 mail-in ballot applications for the upcoming municipal primary, which in past years has seen low turnout. About 40,000 mail-in ballots were issued for the presidential primaries last spring.

The deadline to apply for mail-in ballots for the primary is May 11. The deadline to register to vote is May 3.

Sebastiani said thousands of mail-in ballots were cast last fall using drop boxes.

Commissioners said decisions about where and when drop boxes will be placed will be determined by the county’s ability to have staff on site and what locations can be secured for the May primary.

“I don’t have any objections to drop boxes, but we need to put the cart behind the horse to make sure we have the necessary staff of people in place,” said Commissioner Doug Chew. “We’re also moving as fast as we can, given the challenges we’ve had over the last year.”

Chew said his preference would be to return to locations previously used.

The commissioners stopped short of guaranteeing the use of drop boxes. Republicans Kertes and Chew declined to move forward on a proposal from Democrat Gina Cerilli Thrasher to approve a general plan to install drop boxes outside of the courthouse, without specifics as to dates and locations.

“I know that we can’t exactly say where the locations are, what the dates are and what employees will be there. We can have a special meeting to do that, but I wanted to put on record that the three of us are trying to have drop boxes in our community,” Thrasher said. “This is something that should have been done a month ago. My colleagues did not give the go-ahead to start the process until last week.”

Kertes said he wants to wait until details are finalized before an announcement is made, as commissioners contend with personnel issues and other undisclosed factors impacting plans for the upcoming election.

“No one is trying to suppress votes here or take away votes,” Kertes said. “We’re trying to make sure from this standpoint we have things in the works, and there are a lot of behind-the-scene changes.”