1 week Ago By Mike Jones
Voters in Washington County are taking advantage of the “on demand” voting option that allows people to request a mail-in ballot at their local elections office and immediately fill it out and submit it to the staff. Although Pennsylvania technically doesn’t offer early voting ahead of the Nov. 5 election, people can still visit their county’s elections office and apply for a mail-in ballot, which is then checked by the staff to ensure the voter’s registration information is accurate before being given a ballot about 30 minutes later.
The person then can go into a private area and make his or her political choices before returning it to the staff, which then stores it for safe-keeping until mail-in ballots are counted on Election Day. “We are seeing an increase in voters who are requesting the ‘on demand’ mail-in ballot,” Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said. Similar “on demand” voting options are available at every county elections office across the state, including Fayette and Greene counties.
While the elections office doesn’t categorize any differences between “on demand” ballots and mail-in ballots that go through the U.S. Postal Service, Ostrander said they’ve seen a steady influx of people coming in to request such ballots to vote early.
That’s also illustrated by the fact that out of the 27,052 mail-in ballots requested in Washington County so far, 8,825 have been returned as of Thursday, which is about one-third of the total amount. Ostrander said that’s a remarkably high return rate so early in the process since mail-in ballots just began going out to Washington County voters on Oct. 7.
To make the process easier for people personally returning their mail-in ballots to Washington County’s elections office – rather than mailing them back – the staff has set up a kiosk in the Crossroad Center building’s ground floor lobby with an elections worker stationed there nearly the entire day to help voters. Elections clerk Kent Mosca was sitting there Friday – as he has every day over the past week – accepting mail-in ballots and ensuring they’re handed in by the voter since no one else can return a person’s ballot. “We wanted to have an easy, identified place for voters who are just returning their mail-in ballot versus voters who have to come into our office to apply to receive their on-demand mail-in ballot,” Ostrander said.
“Having someone in the hallway greeting voters and directing them as they come off the elevator, we wanted to make sure no one was confused and there is someone there to answer questions.” The kiosk is not a “drop box” since the table is staffed by a trained elections worker at all times to interact with voters and supervise the return of mail-in ballots. An elections worker will be at the table from 9 a.
m. to 3:45 p.m.
on weekdays up until Oct. 29, which is the final day to apply for a mail-in ballot. The elections office itself is open daily from 9 a.
m. until 4:30 p.m.
All mail-in ballots must be returned to the elections office no later than Election Day at 8 p.m. on Nov.
5, per state law. All of this comes as Monday is the final day for people to register to vote or make changes to their registration. All changes must be made by 5 p.
m. at their elections office or by going online to the state’s voting database at vote.pa.
gov. Ostrander said the elections office will be open until 5 p.m.
Monday to accommodate people submitting last-minute voter registration applications. She added that it would be wise for people to go to the state’s elections website to make sure their registration information is correct and to confirm their polling place’s location. “They can check their polling place to see if anything has changed, and have a plan for Election Day,” Ostrander said.
For more information about registration, voters should go to their county’s elections office or the state’s elections website at vote.pa.gov.
.
