Mail-in ballots start arriving to voters in Fayette County
Mail-in and absentee ballots will soon begin landing in voters无毛视频� mailboxes as elections offices across southwestern Pennsylvania have started sending them out to people who requested them.
Fayette County sent 7,308 ballots to voters late last week, with the first ones arriving Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Elections Director MaryBeth Kuznik.
That should give voters nearly a month to return them ahead of the Nov. 7 general election with local, school board, county and statewide judicial races up for grabs.
无毛视频淧lease get them back as quickly as you can,无毛视频� Kuznik said. 无毛视频淏ut take your time (filling out the ballots) and make sure they无毛视频檙e voting for the person they really want. If it gets close to the election day, they can bring them into the elections office any time.无毛视频�
People can still request their absentee ballots up until Oct. 31, which is one week before the election.
无毛视频淚f it gets that close, we无毛视频檙e not going to have time to mail a ballot out and and have them mail it back,无毛视频� Kuznik said. 无毛视频淐ome into the office and you can sign up for one, fill it out here, and turn it in immediately. You无毛视频檒l be done and you won无毛视频檛 have to worry about getting it back to us.无毛视频�
Mail-in and absentee ballots must be returned by the voters themselves 无毛视频� and not by a friend or relative 无毛视频� no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Of the 7,308 mail-in and absentee ballots that Fayette County has sent out so far, 5,677 were requested by Democrats, 1,305 of them went to Republicans and the remaining 326 are going to independent or unaffiliated party voters. The total requests this general election are already higher than the last off-year cycle in 2021 when 6,035 were sent out and 5,075 were turned back in, Kuznik said.
That follows a similar uptick in Washington County, which is also beating 2021无毛视频檚 figures with three weeks left to request a ballot.
Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said her staff sent out the first batch of mail-in and absentee ballots Tuesday and will finish sending the rest out by Friday. They have received a total of 13,463 requests so far, with 10,065 going to Democratic voters, 2,521 of them heading to Republicans and 877 being sent to independent or unaffiliated voters. That is slightly higher than the 13,072 sent out in 2021.
Ostrander said she thinks people are becoming more comfortable using mail-in ballots nowadays. No-excuse mail-in voting was introduced in 2020 after a bipartisan bill was passed by the Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law by then-Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf the previous year.
She urged people to put the completed ballot in the secrecy envelope, and then stick that in the mailing envelope, which should be signed and dated or it won无毛视频檛 be counted.
无毛视频淚t无毛视频檚 getting better every election,无毛视频� she said. 无毛视频淲e无毛视频檙e having less undated, less unsigned, less without the secrecy envelope. But there are still people who are missing one of the steps, but there is also a lot more education out there.无毛视频�
Ostrander said people who still are considering voting by mail should get their applications in sooner rather than later to ensure they get them on time.
无毛视频淵ou无毛视频檙e cutting it very close,无毛视频� Ostranader said of the Oct. 31 deadline to apply. 无毛视频淚f it无毛视频檚 the 31st and you still haven无毛视频檛 applied, you should come to the office.无毛视频�
People can either send an application to their county无毛视频檚 elections office, fill out a form in person or go online to www.vote.pa.gov to request one, which will then be forwarded to their local office for processing.