Voters still are encouraged to cast ballots by mail in the upcoming election, but there won’t be drop boxes available in satellite locations across Allegheny County like there were during last year’s presidential race.

And Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald says he has no plans to bring the remote boxes back — not for this year’s municipal, school board and judicial elections, nor for next year’s competitive Senate and gubernatorial races.

“In my mind, we do have drop boxes,” Fitzgerald said. “They’re called mailboxes.”

On Thursday, postal workers are set to begin delivering more than 124,000 early-voting ballots requested thus far, county elections officials report.

In addition to returning ballots by mail, residents can drop off ballots at the county’s main elections office — which will be operating under extended and weekend hours in coming weeks — as well as inside the lobby of the City-County Building on Grant Street in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Councilwoman pushes back: ‘We have the money’

When asked during Tuesday night’s County Council meeting if he’d consider more funding for drop boxes in other community-based locations, Fitzgerald replied, “I would not be in favor of that.”

He cited concerns over costs and suggested they’re less need for such options as more people get vaccinated and trust voting by mail.

“The problem with the drop boxes are numerous,” Fitzgerald said. “No. 1, they’ve got to be monitored 24/7. You can’t just have a box and leave it unattended because then there could be potential for fraud and other litigation that comes about.

Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, D-Ross, balked at Fitzgerald’s dismissal of the option. She argued that aside from pandemic-related concerns, the remote drop boxes proved a popular option that helped increase turnout last year, including by those who didn’t feel comfortable relying on the U.S. Postal Service amid service slowdowns and staff shortages.

“I’m very disappointed in the county executive’s statement— especially because we saw how wildly successful the drop boxes were,” Hallam said.

She likened the county scrapping the community-based drop box locations so soon to “holding a shiny new toy in front of voters, and then taking it away the next year and saying we won’t do it again.”

Hallam says she plans to introduce an amendment attempting to allocate money to bring them back and even increase the number available countywide.

Last year, for instance, none of the temporary over-the-counter elections offices were in the Alle-Kiski Valley. The closest to the Valley was on its fringe, at the Boyce Park ski lodge in Monroeville.

“We have the money to be able to do it,” Hallam said. “If the county executive and and his administration want to increase access to voting and remove obstacles for voting, we can.”

Elections costs spiked during 2020

The cost of elections already has ballooned with the addition of mail-in voting statewide, according to Fitzgerald.

Prior to the covid-19 pandemic, in 2019, the county spent about $5 million on elections. Last year, the county’s elections tab climbed to $13 million.

“The fact is, mail-in balloting has added a big cost,” said Fitzgerald, “because we’re still using the 1,300 polling places that are staffed fully for people to go vote in person, but processing a couple hundred thousand ballots is expensive.

“We as county taxpayers have to deal with that. That’s our property tax owners who are paying for that.”

The county executive added that he thinks there’s less need for drop boxes as vaccination rates increase and voters here adjust to voting by mail, which was a new option for Pennsylvania voters in 2020.

Still, Fitzgerald maintains that voters “have more options to vote now than they ever have.”

Drop boxes remain in Westmoreland County

In contrast, the regional drop boxes in place during Westmoreland County’s last couple elections will stick around.

A drop box for mail-in ballots will be available at the Westmoreland County Courthouse starting Oct. 18 and at several regional locations, including at the Westmoreland County Community College’s facilities in New Kensington, Murrysville and the Youngwood area. Other options include Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity and the county’s adult probation office on Riverview Drive in Monessen.

Greg McCloskey, acting director for the Westmoreland election bureau, said more than 19,000 ballots were mailed to voters on Wednesday.

RELATED: Westmoreland County approves drop boxes for mail-in ballots

How to request a ballot

The fastest way to apply for a mail-in or absentee ballot in Allegheny County is to do so online at the county’s elections division website or VotesPA.com/ApplyMailBallot. Voters also can apply in person at the county elections office in Downtown Pittsburgh, on the sixth floor of 542 Forbes Ave., between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Monday or Tuesday.

Elections staff can assist if a ballot has not been received, an error was made or a ballot was damaged.

Applications for mail-in and absentee ballots for the Nov. 2 election must be received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 26. (Note that the deadline to register to vote is Oct. 18.)

Each application gets verified to “ensure the voter is registered to vote, hasn’t already applied for a ballot or has any other barriers to voting,” elections officials said.

Completed ballots are secured and stored in the county elections warehouse in Pittsburgh’s North Side, where envelopes will remain locked in a room monitored by cameras until 7 a.m. on Election Day, which is the earliest the ballots can be opened and counted, per state law.

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