Apr 27, 2023 5 min read

A public viewing area will be set up for people who want to watch in real-time as Washington County elections workers tabulate votes during next month’s primary.

The county elections board voted unanimously Wednesday to allow up to 100 people to occupy the commissioners meeting room on the ground floor of the Crossroads county office building to watch live video streaming from four surveillance cameras showing the counting process.

The cameras are positioned in the ballot room, computer room and two hallways, and the live videos will be displayed on an 80-inch television screen to give people a glimpse of the process as it plays out after the polls close following the May 16 primary election.

Diana Irey Vaughan, who chairs the elections board since she is not running for reelection for commissioner this year, said the setup will give the public the ability to “view every angle” as workers tabulate the results. She added that the county is going “above and beyond” with the viewing room to offer transparency with how votes are counted.

“I think this is a wonderful idea,” Irey Vaughan said during the elections board’s final meeting before the primary.

The decision to offer a viewing room came about after there were complaints by some people who wanted to witness the counting during last year’s general election, but were not permitted in the elections office with the staff. The new commissioners meeting room at the Crossroads Center building, which began being used in January, offers a large enough space to accommodate a crowd of people, if needed. The television screen behind the dais will simultaneously project the videos from all four surveillance cameras, while another television screen in the room will show election results.

Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said they’re not required to offer such accommodations and many similar-sized counties in Western Pennsylvania usually don’t allow people to personally view the vote tabulation, but there are some counties in the eastern part of the state that do. She said this setup will allow for her staff to have enough room to work while giving the public a chance to watch the process unfold.

“We just want to get everything in, correct and counted,” Ostrander said.

The elections board’s other two members, Monica Merrell and Todd Pappasergi, asked that a process be put in place so people know the rules before entering, including signage posted on the door.

The viewing room will be open to the public on primary election day from 7:30 p.m. until counting is completed. A maximum of 100 people will be allowed in at one time due to the room’s capacity, with sheriff’s deputies handling entry on a first-come, first-served basis at the ground-floor door on North Franklin Street. People will not be permitted to roam other areas of the building where the elections staff is working.

More information about the viewing room will be posted on the county’s website at www.co.washington.pa.us and its social media pages. Ostrander added that she will email the chairs for the Democratic and Republican parties informing them of the viewing accommodations.

Also during the elections board meeting, Ostrander announced that the first batch of the more than 10,000 mail-in and absentee ballots requested by voters in the county will be sent out by the end of the week. The process was delayed by two weeks after Prothonotary Laura Hough challenged the candidacy of Kevin Hill, who is running against her in the Republican primary. The elections office had to wait until Judge Michael Lucas dismissed Hough’s appeal early last week, paving the way for Hill to stay on the ballot.

“We’ll be working to get (mail-in ballots) out to the voters so there is enough turnaround time,” Ostrander said.

The elections board also voted unanimously to allow the elections staff to contact voters to “cure” ballots that are unsigned on the outside envelope, but they will not do so if the date is missing or incorrect.

“The (state Department of State) is allowing each county to decide how to handle this,” Ostrander said.

The board decided to allow for corrections to be made to unsigned ballot envelopes because statewide litigation on that issue has been settled. But there remains pending litigation over whether undated envelopes can be amended by the voters, prompting the board to decide not to allow those to be “cured” before the primary. Mail-in and absentee ballots that are undated will be “canceled” and voters will be notified through an automated email, giving them the opportunity to apply for a new ballot or to vote with a provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day.

During last year’s general election, only 66 ballots were not counted due to defects out of the 19,073 mail-in and absentee ballots returned to the elections office.