Westmoreland County begins provisional ballot count

Nine bipartisan two-person teams spent Monday sifting through more than 600 provisional ballots cast last week at Westmoreland County’s 307 voting precincts.

Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey said the counting of provisional ballots is expected to be completed Tuesday, leaving just a small number of overseas and military votes to tally before the final results of the general election can be certified.

“They are reviewing each (provisional) ballot for eligibility,” McCloskey said of the teams appointed last month by county commissioners. Voters who received mail-in ballots but opted to vote at the precincts last week or others with questions about their eligibility were allowed to vote provisionally at the polls.

The two-person teams gathered Monday in the public meeting rooms at the courthouse were tasked with assuring each of the provisional ballots cast last week were completed by eligible voters and that no other votes — mail-in ballot or otherwise — were recorded in their names.

McCloskey said 638 voters cast provisional ballots this fall.

That number was substantially less than the more than 3,600 that were cast in the 2020 presidential election, which required nearly a week to count.

Election officials said the counting of another group of mail-in ballots — from military members and residents living overseas — will begin later this week. Ballots received through the end of Tuesday are eligible to be counted, McCloskey said.

County commissioners, serving as the board of elections, are scheduled to approve a final certification on Nov. 28.