In the summer, the Westmoreland County commissioners were presented with a petition asking for paper ballots in a paperless era. Five thousand signatures is all it took for Sean Kertes and Doug Chew to approve $40,000 for these ballots.
Of those ballots, 3,996 were used; that’s 1,004 less than the total signatures needed to persuade our Republican majority commissioners. The paper ballots cost the county $7.71 per ballot used. That’s $30,809.16. For comparison, the cost of a 24-hour ballot drop box can be substantial; each box typically costs around $6,000. That’s 19.4747276% less than the cost of the paper ballots.
Meanwhile, of the 106,000 ballots cast in Westmoreland County, 27,000 were submitted by mail. That’s nine times the number of people who used paper ballots, and 25.47% of the total ballots in this county cast. For comparison, the number of paper ballots was 3.76% of the total cast, or 21.71% less than the total of mail-in ballots.
My question to this county, as we enter the 2026 primary season, and to the commissioners is: At what point do we realize common sense trumps feelings and lies? When is enough enough?
Ash Franzetti
Greensburg