May 9, 2023 5 min read

Today is the final day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot for the May 16 primary, although elections officials in the area are urging voters to come in-person to the county offices to apply for a ballot in order to immediately return it.

While there’s still another week to go before the primary, the quick turnaround means it’s unlikely elections offices will be able to mail a ballot to a voter’s house and then have it returned before the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day.

People can still request a mail-in or absentee ballot online at www.vote.pa.gov, or they can go to their local elections office before 5 p.m. today to fill out an application with the staff, who will hand it to the voter over the counter.

“We’re telling people to come to the office,” Fayette County Elections Director MaryBeth Kuznik said. “You can vote here (with the ballot after applying for one) if you want, and you’ll be done.”

So far, nearly 7,000 voters in Fayette County have requested a ballot, which breaks down to 5,584 Democrats and 1,384 Republicans in their individual primaries.

She said the county began sending them on April 20 in order to get all the pre-requested ballots out by the May 2 deadline imposed by the state. They’re now sending out ballots as people apply for them.

But there have been delays in neighboring Greene County, where some voters reported late-arriving mail-in ballots despite requesting them when the application window opened in February.

Lynne Snyder, a Waynesburg councilwoman who’s running unopposed in the Democratic primary, said she made her request for a mail-in ballot on Feb. 10, but it did not arrive in her mailbox until Monday afternoon. The postmark shows it was sent Friday, which concerned her why the Greene County elections office processed it so late and beyond the May 2 deadline.

“They did not follow the rules, yet again. Just like they did not follow the rules with the casting of lots,” Snyder said, alluding to problems with how the ballot order was selected in March. “They should’ve been sitting in trays ready to go out as soon as that issue was resolved.”

While Snyder lives in Waynesburg, she’s concerned about people who live in far-flung areas of Greene County and will now have to drive to the elections office in the borough to hand deliver their votes. Snyder said she’s spoken to five other people who still had not received their ballots as of Monday.

“I’m very upset. I’m very upset because what is the sense of applying for a mail-in ballot if you have to take your ballot and deliver it by hand?” Snyder said. “What good does it do for the rural voter in Clarksville who has to drive to Waynesburg to deliver it? What about the ladies in Bobtown who haven’t received it and have to drive 40 minutes to town to return it?”

Greene County Elections Director Jason Mihal denied the office has had issues getting out mail-in ballots despite the complaints from Snyder and others. He said they shipped about 1,400 ballots as of last week, and are now working to get an additional 200 to 300 out that have been requested recently.

Greene County Commissioner Mike Belding, who chairs the county’s elections board, said the “majority” of ballots have gone out on time after they began sending them in late April. He said delays in the certification of statewide judicial races slowed the process from getting underway.

“They’re up to date,” Belding said. “When (applications) come in, (mail-in ballots) go out.”

But Washington County dealt with even longer delays with the ongoing challenges and appeals attempting to remove a Republican candidate running for prothonotary that dragged into mid-April and postponed finalizing the ballot. Yet, that staff was still able to send out about 12,000 mail-in ballots on time before the statutory May 2 deadline. Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said her staff and temporary workers spent several days in a row in late April – including working on a Saturday – to send out all pre-requested ballots in time so people began receiving them early last week.

“We have a staff whose job it is to send out the mail-in ballots,” Ostrander said. “We had a team of six people and then my regular staff working including on Saturday (April 29), we all did mail-in ballots.”

So far, 9,391 Democrats have applied for mail-in ballots in Washington County and 2,718 requests have come from Republicans. While non-partisan registered voters typically do not participate in primary elections, five independents in Morris Township have asked for mail-in ballots because of a referendum on the ballot to allow alcohol sales in the municipality.

All mail-in and absentee ballots must be received at the county’s elections office no later than 8 p.m. May 16. Voters must place their ballot inside a secrecy envelope before putting it in the outer mailing envelope, which must be signed and dated.