Mail-in ballot processing resumes after power restored at Westmoreland County Courthouse

Mary Rose McGivern and her 19-year-old daughter Madeline, who is voting for the first time this year, turned in their application for mail-in ballots with just three minutes to spare before Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline.

The McGiverns, of Delmont, were the last of the hundreds of voters who came to the Westmoreland County Courthouse to apply for and receive ballots ahead of the Nov. 3 election as election officials scrambled to overcome a two-hour service suspension caused by a power outage in downtown Greensburg.

“We were going to come earlier but we heard about the power outage. My daughter goes to Seton Hill University and had a class this afternoon so we were just able to sneak in under the wire,” Mary Rose McGivern said. “We were going to vote in person but decided this would be the safer option.”

At times on Tuesday the line to apply for ballots snaked down a first floor hallway and over a pedestrian bridge above Pennsylvania Avenue as would-be voters waited to get applications filed and processed.

By late afternoon, county elections officials streamlined the process and were handing out applications as voters arrived. A county employee stood with the McGiverns to give them time updates as they rushed to get their applications completed then ran the paperwork into the elections bureau office to ensure they were time-stamped before the the 5 p.m. deadline.

The county set up chairs in the courthouse lobby and set aside a conference room were voters could wait to receive their ballots, which could then be immediately filled out and deposited in a drop box as part of Pennsylvania’s unofficial early voting process.

Ron Layman, of Mt. Pleasant Township, said he waited for about three hours Tuesday to receive his ballot and vote. “The lines at the polls (on Election Day) will probably be longer,” Layman said.

Tuesday’s power outage, caused by a downed tree near the courthouse, was just the latest problem with the vote-by-mail process in Westmoreland County. Mechanical and personnel issues at the private, Cleveland, Ohio-based company hired by the county to print and mail out ballots caused about a week delay in sending out ballots.

Some voters also reported they received duplicate ballots in the mail, an issue the county is still investigating.

Commissioners said nearly 72,000 ballots have been mailed out to voters as of Tuesday and another nearly 2,800 will be sent out Wednesday. Ballots approved from applications submitted online or in person on Tuesday, including those not distributed in person at the courthouse, will be mailed out this week.

Ballots postmarked by 5 p.m. on Nov. 3 and returned to the courthouse by Nov. 6 will be counted.

As of Tuesday, the county has received more than 46,000 returned ballots, which represents more than 64% of those that have been previously mailed to voters. Drop boxes will be available Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Westmoreland County Community College buildings in Murrysville and Youngwood, and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the community college campus in New Kensington, the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe and the county’s adult probation office in Monessen. The courthouse drop box will accept completed ballots until 8 p.m. every day through the Nov. 3 election.

Voters who were approved but not yet to received their mail-in ballots still have two options to vote, officials said.

“Voters awaiting a mail-in ballot but have not yet received it can come to the elections office at the courthouse and it will be reissued to them,” said Commissioner Gina Cerilli.

Provisional ballots can also be used at the polls on Election Day, she said.