Westmoreland County confirms that mail-in ballots were not sent out as planned

Mail-in ballots that were to be sent out last week to voters in Westmoreland County remained missing-in-action Thursday as officials scrambled to correct what has become a weeklong delay in the start of voting for the general election.

Voters who called the elections bureau Thursday were told ballots were mailed out Tuesday, but sources said that was not the case.

County Solicitor Melissa Guiddy released a statement Thursday night that acknowledged the problem. She said that the mass mailing company the county is using, Mid-West Direct, will start mailing out more than 58,000 ballots Friday morning.

State elections officials in late September approved the ballots and cleared the way for early mail-in voting to begin. Ballots in other counties have been mailed, including Allegheny, which sent its first batch to voters Sept. 24.

Westmoreland County commissioners last month agreed to pay Cleveland-based Mid-West Direct up to $170,000 to coordinate and mail ballots to voters.

Last month, Elections Bureau Director Sebastiani described how the process would work.

She said a list of voters approved to receive mail-in ballots, along with their contact information, would be electronically sent to Mid-West. The company would then have two days to stuff ballots into envelopes, drive from Cleveland to a post office in Pittsburgh’s North Side and mail them to Westmoreland voters.

In the statement, Guiddy said in part, “Mid-West did not send out the ballots on Tuesday as indicated. The County has been assured that the ballots will be sent out starting (Friday) morning. Once Mid-West is able to catch up on the backlog over the weekend, the County expects the process to run smoothly.”

Calls to company officials in Cleveland were not returned Thursday.

Meanwhile, county commissioners, who sit as the county elections board, have yet to decide whether drop boxes or satellite offices to assist with collections of mail-in boxes will be authorized.

The elections board was to meet this week when those issues could be considered. That meeting was pushed back to next Tuesday after Commissioner Doug Chew tested positive for the coronavirus.