I am appalled and outraged by the procrastination and delay of the officials of the Westmoreland County Board of Elections in ensuring that the voters of Westmoreland County who have registered to vote by mail receive their ballots in an appropriate and timely fashion (“Westmoreland County confirms that mail-in ballots were not sent out as planned,” Oct. 8, TribLIVE). This is an issue that affects all Westmoreland County voters, regardless of their party affiliation.
Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani, you should be ashamed of yourself and of the performance of your staff members, who have repeatedly given misinformation to the voting public about when their ballots would be mailed. County Solicitor Melissa Guiddy claimed that ballots would begin to be sent out on Oct. 9, but if there are further delays in this process, many thousands of Westmoreland County voters — including those who serve overseas in our armed forces — will be deprived of their right to vote through no fault of their own.
Ms. Sebastiani, this is unacceptable. I’m tired of the lack of accountability in this matter from your office. As the Elections Bureau director, I hold you personally responsible for this failure and will be contacting the Pennsylvania attorney general.
Mary Van Tyne
North Huntingdon