Allegheny County to send mail-in ballot forms to every voter; Gov. Wolf mulls pleas for mail-only election

Allegheny County elections officials have begun sending every resident eligible to vote in the June 2 primary election an application for a mail-in ballot — whether or not they requested one.

Citing concerns over the highly contagious coronavirus , Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald is urging everyone to consider voting by mail.

“We hope that voters will continue to seek mail-in ballots as it is the safest option for them, and for all of our residents, during this pandemic,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Wolf yet to approve mail-only election

As of Friday night, Gov. Tom Wolf had yet to approve Fitzgerald’s broader request to conduct the upcoming election entirely by mail.

Doing so would quell mounting concerns over a shortage of healthy poll workers and the threat of putting workers as well as voters at risk of contracting covid-19.

“Without that authority, we’re moving forward with our plans to mail the mail-in ballot applications,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Voting by mail in Pennsylvania just became available beyond limited absentee voting with legislation Wolf signed into law last October.

So far, Allegheny County has received more than 71,000 applications for absentee and mail-in ballots — representing less than 10% of eligible voters. About 20,000 applications have been processed, with the first set of ballots going out in the mail Friday.

As of Monday, more than 770,200 registered voters in Allegheny County were eligible to vote in the primary election. That includes about 520,700 Democrats and 250,000 Republicans, state data show. Nearly 80,000 residents had no party affiliation. As independent voters, they are ineligible to vote in Pennsylvania’s primary.

Westmoreland County elections officials did not return a request for comment late Friday whether they plan to follow Allegheny County’s plan.

Statewide, about 450,000 requests for mail-in or absentee ballots have been received.

Officials in a pair of heavily populated suburban Philadelphia counties, Montgomery and Chester, also are backing the idea of an all-mail election, while Philadelphia is making preparations for it in case an all-mail election is ordered.

Democrats pressed for a provision in legislation last month to require counties to send mail-in ballot applications to every voter, but it failed in the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

Lawmakers did, however, delay the primary election from April 28 to June 2.

Poll workers fear health risks

In a typical election, Allegheny County has 1,323 polling places staffed by 6,615 workers; that’s about five per location.

Most poll workers are seniors.

A majority “have been canceling or are expressing concerns for their own health and well-being if they work at a poll,” county officials said in a news release.

Among polling places are schools, churches and senior living high-rise complexes — and people there “are indicating concerns with opening their locations to the public as well,” county officials said.

That means that even if in-person voting goes on, the county must scramble to find alternative polling sites that are accessible and suitable.

Fitzgerald suggested Wolf expand the state’s emergency declaration to allow for the change, which could exempt the county from typical polling location legal requirements.

The county elections division has been working on efforts to increase advertising for mail-in voting and figure out what resources were needed to get applications out to all voters since last month — when “it became clear that we would not be able to conduct a typical election,” Fitzgerald said.

Most of the new ballot applications will go to those who did not yet request one, though there may be “some overlap,” county officials said. They will include an envelope with prepaid postage for returning the mail-in ballot request form.

The deadline to request a mail-in ballot for the June 2 primary is 5 p.m. May 26.

The deadline to register to vote is 5 p.m. May 18.

Allegheny County officials said postmarks no longer apply, and all registrations must be received by 5 p.m. that day at the elections division, Room 609 at 542 Forbes Ave. in Downtown Pittsburgh.

For more information and links to the online application for mail-in ballots, go to alleghenyvotes.com.

The Associated Press contributed.