Fewer than 1% of mail-in, absentee ballots rejected in Westmoreland County

There were 318 mail-in and absentee ballots rejected in Westmoreland County because of deficiencies that rendered them invalid, election officials said.

Another 95 ballots that included incorrect dates or were undated were subjected to a state court order that required them to be segregated and not initially counted, said Greg McCloskey, director of the county’s election bureau.

The county received more than 34,900 mail-in and absentee ballots ahead of the general election, a return rate of more than 90% of those that were sent to voters over the past month.

“We received close to 1,000 ballots (at the courthouse) on Tuesday,” McCloskey said.

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Totals from this year’s election exceeded the number of mail-in and absentee ballots turned in by voters in each of the past two years. The county received nearly 60,000 mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election, the first that authorized the use of no-excuse use of the system that allowed residents to cast ballots before Election Day.

Turnout, including mail-in ballots and results from votes cast on Election Day in the county’s 307 precincts, was nearly 68%, according to totals released by the elections office.

That figure does not include rejected mail ballots. McCloskey said ballots that had no or incorrect signatures, those that were not inserted into inner secrecy envelopes or had markings that identified a voter on those envelops were not counted.

Meanwhile, 603 provisional ballots were cast Tuesday at the polls.

Those ballots will be processed and counted Nov. 14 by bipartisan boards appointed by the county commissioners, McCloskey said.