Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the hours of operations for the remote drop box locations.

Westmoreland County voters will have four, and maybe five, regional ballot drop boxes available for the two weekends prior to the May 18 primary.

County commissioners on Tuesday approved drop-box locations at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Unity, Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood and at the college’s branch campus in New Kensington. The county’s regional probation office in Monessen also will serve as a drop-box location.

A separate drop box will be available to voters starting May 3 in the lobby of the county courthouse in Greensburg. It will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week and until 8 p.m. on Election Day.

“We want to give voters an option,” said Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher.

County officials first used the regional drop-box system last fall, when thousands of voters dropped off mail-in ballots at the courthouse and at five locations over the two weekends that led up to November’s general election.

As before, the county will assign an employee to staff each of the drop boxes, which will be monitored by video surveillance as well.

Drop boxes will be at the same locations as in the fall, although details have not been finalized to place another ballot box at the Westmoreland County Community College location in Murrysville.

Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said the county is awaiting approval to use the Murrysville location and, once received, that location will be added to the schedule.

Regional collections of mail-in ballots will not be available on May 9, Mother’s Day, to allow county workers to spend time with family, commissioners said.

Drop boxes at the airport, the community college site on Fifth Avenue in New Kensington and the probation office on Riverview Drive in Monessen will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 8.

The New Kensington, Monessen and WCCC campus location near Youngwood will operate the same hours on Saturday, May 15. The airport and WCCC location near Youngwood will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, May 16.

The county received nearly 60,000 mail-in ballots in the fall. As of Monday, about 15,200 applications for mail-in ballots had been processed by county elections staffers, Sebastiani said.

Commissioners said there are no plans to discontinue the drop-box system or limit their placement in future elections.

“We’ll follow the law,” said Commissioner Sean Kertes. “We still have brand-new machines and, hopefully, with covid (easing), people can go back to the precincts if they choose to. (Drop boxes) are another tool in our tool box.”

May 3 is the deadline to register to vote in the primary.

The deadline to apply for mail-in ballots is May 11.

Sebastiani said voters who signed up last year to receive mail-in ballots on a permanent basis will need to apply this spring. The state’s permanent mail-in ballot status is only for one year, she said.

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