Westmoreland County fields bids to print, mail ballots for primary

Westmoreland County has received proposals from seven companies to print and mail ballots for the spring primary, including one from the Cleveland-based firm that has yet to be paid as a result of production delays last fall that impacted thousands of local voters.

Elections Bureau director JoAnn Sebastiani said Midwest Direct Presort Mail, along with one printing business in Pennsylvania and companies from Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and Washington state, submitted pitches to print and mail ballots for the May 18 primary. That election will feature hundreds of local races, including county row offices, district judges, municipal councils, township supervisors and school boards.

“No local company submitted a proposal. I talked to several local printers, but it is a lengthy process and it takes a full commitment,” Sebastiani said.

The proposals will be evaluated and negotiations over price and other details will follow, but so far, county commissioners have not decided to again hire a private company to print and mail out ballots this spring, Sebastiani said. The primary ballots won’t be finalized until at least mid-March.

Westmoreland County printed and mailed about 40,000 ballots to voters for the presidential primary last spring using its own staff and printing capabilities. A change in the elections bureau administration and a concern about the volume of voters, estimated to be as many as 100,000, to vote by mail in the fall amid the raging pandemic prompted officials to seek out a private printing and mail firm to handle those duties.

The county, through a vendor, eventually mailed out more than 76,000 ballots to voters last fall.

Sebastiani said it’s too early to know how many ballots will be mailed for the spring municipal primary, which historically sees voter turnout average about 20%. Turnout for the fall presidential election in the county was more than 81%.

The elections bureau this week sent out letters to nearly 55,000 county voters who in 2020 requested to permanently receive mail-in and absentee ballots for all future elections. Voters can opt out of the program for all upcoming elections or ask to receive mail-in ballots for just the spring primary.

“Once we start getting back some responses, it will help us establish our numbers better,” Sebastiani said.

No-excuse mail-in ballots, used last year for the first time in Pennsylvania, became a flashpoint of controversy last fall amid political rhetoric and concerns about Postal Service delays.

A mechanical issue in early October at Midwest Direct’s plant near Cleveland delayed the initial mailing of ballots to Westmoreland County voters. Throughout the remainder of October, county officials also complained about mail delays that prompted commissioners to consider reclaiming the printing and mailing of ballots in the waning days of the pre-election period, although that step was never taken.

As of Tuesday, the county has yet to pay Midwest Direct’s bill of about $142,000 and is seeking a lower price based on the delays, Sebastiani said.

“In the end, they were able to cure their problems and they got the ballots mailed out on time,” she said.