Early voting soars in Westmoreland County

Exceeding expectations, nearly 22,000 Westmoreland County voters already have cast ballots with less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 8 general election.

County officials said the number of mail-in applications requested and returned by voters has continued to surpass estimates. As of Wednesday, more than 36,000 mail-in and absentee ballots were requested.

In Allegheny County, more than 177,000 mail-in ballots were requested by voters. According to the county website, there were 103,260 ballots returned to date: 82,784 from Democrats and 13,409 from Republicans.

Voters have until Tuesday, Nov. 1 to apply for a mail-in ballot. All mail-in ballots must be received by county election offices before 8 p.m. Election Day to be counted.

“My guess is there will be more than 30,000 (mail-in) ballots returned. We’ve had the most requests since the 2020 general election and have had the most come back since 2020,” said Greg McCloskey, director of the Westmoreland County Election Bureau.

More than 20,000 Westmoreland voters mailed in their ballots during the spring primary. For the 2020 presidential election, the county received nearly 60,000 mail-in ballots.

Both ballot requests and returns have heavily favored Democrats so far. McCloskey said two-thirds of the mail-in ballots were requested by registered Democrats. More than 72% of the ballots, nearly 16,000, returned to date were from Democratic voters, according to the county.

Bill Bretz, chairman of the county Republican Committee, said he believes the early voting will not impact what he said is expected to be a successful election for the GOP.

“I hoped most people would have waited to see what happened (during Tuesday night’s debate between U.S. Senate candidates John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz), but this suggests many people have already made up their minds and the die is cast.”

Still, Bretz suggested GOP candidates are in good shape heading into Nov. 8 and Election Day voting is likely to favor Republicans.

“We know we have potentially some deficit, so we know we need to turn out the numbers,” Bretz said.

County Democratic Committee Chairwoman Michelle McFall said the increased numbers of returned ballots is a sign that voters have become more comfortable with the process first instituted in 2020.

But it is still too early to say what impact, if any, the mail-in ballots will have on the final results.

“It is encouraging that people who requested ballots are returning them so quickly and shows there is a level of enthusiasm,” McFall said. “I think it is very promising for Democrats.”