Drop box added at Murrysville location ahead of May 18 primary

Rich Cholodofsky, Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
·2 min read

May 5—Westmoreland County officials say more than 15,400 mail-in ballots have been sent out to voters ahead of the May 18 primary.

Another batch of more than 800 ballots are ready to go out, Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said.

The deadline to apply for mail-in ballots is May 11. They must be received back at the courthouse by 8 p.m. May 18 to be counted.

The county's Elections Board on Wednesday approved the use of one additional drop box at the Westmoreland County Community College location on Mellon Road in Murrysville. That box will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and again May 15.

It joins drop box locations that will be open during the same hours Saturday at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, near Latrobe, the community college's New Kensington location on 5th Avenue and the county's adult probation office on Riverview Drive in Monessen.

In addition to Murrysville, drop boxes also will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 15 at the WCCC locations in New Kensington and Monessen as well as on the Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood campus.

The airport and Youngwood locations also will host drop boxes from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 16.

A permanent drop box location opened Wednesday morning at the county courthouse in Greensburg and will be available for voters to deposit mail-in ballots daily and on weekends through May 18, from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

County commissioners had a second security camera installed in the main lobby of the courthouse to observe the drop box.

"We added an extra camera as a backup," said Commissioner Sean Kertes.

The state's election laws require each drop box to be monitored by video and in person by elections staffers. Security video will be retained for 60 days after the primary vote totals are certified, officials said.

Voters will only be allowed to turn in their own completed mail-in ballots at the drop box locations.

Sebastiani said voters who require another person to pick up or submit their mail-in ballot must fill out a form available on the county's website to designate someone else to help perform those tasks.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293, rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .