Despite a full-court press from more than a dozen residents at Thursday’s public meeting, Westmoreland County’s Republican commissioners said they will not reinstate the use of drop boxes for upcoming elections.
“I do appreciate the intense lobbying but my position has not changed,” said Commissioner Doug Chew.
Chew and Commissioner Sean Kertes contend costs to install drop boxes at the courthouse and at regional locations throughout the county are not justified and pointed to the small number of voters who deposited mail-in ballots in drop boxes during the 2021 through 2023 election cycles.
In response to the legalization of no-excuse mail-in ballots in 2020 and the covid-19 pandemic, commissioners installed a series of drop boxes at regional locations including Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity, Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood and in other locations in New Kensington, Monessen and Murrysville over the course of two weekends that led up to Election Day.
County election officials said the regional drop boxes in 2020 and 2021 saw little use. A box at the airport received fewer than 300 votes while another in Monessen was used by just 37 voters in 2021.
Just one drop box was installed behind the courthouse on Pennsylvania Avenue in Greensburg prior to the 2023 primary, where fewer than 1,000 ballots were deposited, officials said.
No drop boxes have been authorized for use in Westmoreland County since 2023.
Costs — pegged at about $15,000 in 2021 to secure each drop box — for having an election bureau staffer on site to monitor them and transport ballots back to the courthouse, outweighed their level of use, Kertes and Chew said.
Advocates say the boxes are needed to ensure the county’s older population can vote by mail amid what they said is deteriorating confidence in the U.S. Postal Service to ensure ballots can be returned on time to the courthouse to be counted.
Helen Sitler of Ligonier told commissioners the county’s size and its aging population warrant reinstatement of drop boxes.
“Westmoreland County has the 13th-highest population of residents 65 and over in the country. The majority of those 65-plus Westmoreland County residents live in the portion of the county where mail delivery is now slower,” Sitler said. “So, I do claim there is a vortex of voter vulnerability in Westmoreland County, and I and all county voters deserve at least one drop box that is easily accessible.”
Bibiana Boerio of Latrobe suggested commissioners’ concerns about cost are overblown when compared to ensuring all voters are able to cast ballots.
“For voters who receive their (mail-in) ballot late, a secure drop box can be the difference between having their vote counted or not. Drop boxes are not a luxury. They are a safeguard,” Boerio said.
No vote on drop boxes was scheduled during Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting, and there are no proposals under consideration, Kertes said.
Commissioner Ted Kopas, a Democrat, said he continues to support the use of drop boxes.
“We owe it to our voters to have drop boxes and hopefully we can find a path forward,” Kopas said.
