Westmoreland giving chances to test-drive new voting system before the primary

Westmoreland County voters will have multiple opportunities over the next month to view and test new touch-screen computer systems that will be used to cast ballots for the first time this spring.

Elections officials this week announced demonstration sessions will be conducted in Latrobe, Murrysville and New Stanton.

“I think it is very important to allow voters to use the equipment prior to voting,” said Beth Lechman, county Election Bureau director.

Demonstrations will be conducted from:

• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 21 at the Quatrini Rafferty Building, 816 Ligonier St., Latrobe.

• 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 28 at the Annex, 3898 Old William Penn Highway, Murrysville.

• TBA for an April 4 session in New Stanton.

The new machines will be available for viewing at the courthouse in Greensburg for 10 days prior to the April 28 primary, Lechman said.

Commissioners paid $7.1 million last year for the new voting system to meet a gubernatorial mandate that all elections equipment in Pennsylvania used in the 2020 presidential election include verifiable paper trails. Westmoreland’s new system replaces touch-screen computers used since 2005 that did not allow paper ballot reviews of the votes cast.

The new system also uses touch-screen technology but prints out completed paper ballots that reflect the votes made on the computers. Voters will manually scan their completed ballots into counting devices at each precinct.

Voters in 66 precincts that make up the state House 58th District in Adamsburg, Arona, East Huntingdon, parts of Hempfield, Jeannette, Madison, Monessen, Mt. Pleasant, North Belle Vernon, Penn Borough, Rostraver, Sewickley, Smithton, South Huntingdon, Sutersville and West Newton, will be the first to use the new voting system during a special election March 17.

A video tutorial on the new voting systems, as well as information, can be found at VotesPA.com, a website of the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Elections officials and political leaders will have outreach sessions about other changes for the upcoming primary, including information about mail-in voting that will start this spring.