Jacqueline Hill is with Maryn Formley and 34 others. April 13 at 10:05 PM ·
ELECTION UPDATE Here is an update on the status of the May 18th Primary Election after today's Board of Elections meeting: There will be no satellite voting locations for the May 18th Primary Election, and only one dropbox in the lobby of the County Office Building at 542 Forbes Ave. The dropbox will be open Wednesday 5/12, Thursday 5/13, Friday 5/14 from 8am-8pm; Saturday 5/15 from 8am-5pm; Sunday 5/16 from 11am-7pm; Monday 5/17 from 8am-8pm, and Tuesday 5/18 from 7am-8pm We'll be using a new ballot company this year, MER (Michigan Election Resources). They did the mail-in ballots in both Delaware & Lancaster Counties last year. We will soon be getting sample ballots from them to make sure the scanners we have tabulate the votes correctly. This means no more Midwest Direct, the company responsible for sending out 29,000 incorrect ballots to Allegheny County voters last year. Midwest Direct did issue a credit on our 2020 bill for the cost of having to replace the incorrect ballots, and the labor involved in doing so. All candidates running for office in Allegheny County this election (over 2,000!) were sent a sample ballot to check the spelling of their name/party affiliation. Candidates have until this Friday 4/16 to inform Elections Division of any issues with the way their name appears. As of today, there are currently 926,620 registered voters in Allegheny County. This is down from 937,826 voters prior to November 2020. All 1323 voting precincts WILL be open for the May 18th Primary. 30 polling places have been changed since Nov. 2020, with 11 more locations seeking a new location for this year. All voters whose polling places have been moved will receive a post card with new location on 5/3. As of today, 90,000 vote by mail applications have been processed. There is no backlog of applications waiting to be processed at this time. Starting the middle of next week, 100,000 ballots will go out in the first wave of mail-in ballot mailings. Currently, we have 3,780 poll workers scheduled. We need a total of 6,600 to adequately staff all polling places. 75% of Judge of Elections positions have been filled, and 55% of Majority/Minority Inspector positions have been filled. In person training for poll workers began on 4/10. There will be 62 training sessions from 4/10 through 5/13. Online training sessions for poll workers begins 4/19. Training materials for poll workers will be available online for public viewing. We voted unanimously to permanently raise the poll worker pay from $125 for Judge of Elections and $115 for all other poll workers, to $175 for Judge of Elections and $150 for all other poll workers. Ballots will be sent out to voters in the order their application was received. Voters will be able to track their ballot status once it is mailed via the online tracker at https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/ballottracking.aspx The Election Division will "look into" developing a plan for outreach to unaffiliated/3rd party voters to make them aware of the fact that they are able to vote in this Primary Election for the ballot referendum questions. I requested that they be sent applications to remind them. Posted below are 3 sample ballots: -The first is a sample Democratic ballot in Allegheny County. This one is for Aleppo Township, so be mindful that your exact ballot may look different (especially if you live in the City of Pittsburgh, where you will have on additional ballot question!). -The next is a sample Republican ballot in Allegheny County. This one is for Ward 27 District 9 in the City of Pittsburgh. -The last is a sample Non-Partisan Municipal Primary Ballot. This ballot is for any unaffiliated/3rd party voter in Allegheny County living outside of the City of Pittsburgh (where you will have one additional ballot question about banning no-knock warrants). Prepared by County Council Rep. Bethany Hallam