Washington County sets up paper ballot booth in Courthouse Square office building
Barbara Miller/Observer-Reporter
A ballot box is set up on the second floor of the Courthouse Square office building in Washington.
Barbara Miller/Observer-Reporter
Also set up in the Courthouse Square second floor is a ballot box with signage noting, “You can only return your ballot.”
Observer-Reporter
Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander shows off a voting booth in this 2020 photo.
Part of a room that had been used for the Washington County tax claim bureau’s public computer terminals now features a voting booth for those who want to fill out “mail-in” ballots in advance of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
The voting area is on the second floor of the Courthouse Square office building near the elections office.
The X-shaped installation can accommodate two voters at a time, and although signage about use of surveillance cameras before the voting booth was erected remain in place, Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said the cameras for that part of the room have been disabled to give voters privacy.
“We’ve had 33,000 mail-in ballot requests so far,” Ostrander said Monday morning.
By Monday afternoon, the elections office expects to have about 26,500 mail-in ballots sent to voters. The first batch went out the afternoon of Sept. 30.
Those who have received mail-in and absentee ballots can bring them to the voting area to mark them and drop off the completed paper ballot, which must be sealed inside a secrecy envelope. An outer envelope contains a form that must be filled out completely, including printed name, signature and date.
Voters can also arrive at the elections office to apply for a mail-in ballot, but preparation is not instantaneous, and voters should expect to devote about 30 minutes for an application to be processed. Voters can either fill out the ballot at the new booth or take it home, fill it out and mail it to the elections office or return it in person.
Also set up in the Courthouse Square second floor is a ballot box with signage noting, “You can only return your ballot.”
Voters trying to complete voting-related and other tasks online may have been experiencing some difficulties due to outages.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, there was an equipment failure at a data center managed by Unisys.
“The outage is due to an issue with the contractor’s equipment, and there is no evidence of malicious interference,” Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said in a statement Monday.
“All data was backed up, as always. Commonwealth information technology personnel are working with Unisys to restore service as soon as possible.”
Department of State’s professional licensing services, online voter registration and online application for postal ballots were among the affected areas.
Prospective voters can still download and print the paper voter registration and mail-in ballot applications. Those without access to a printer can call the Department of State’s voter hotline, 1-877-VOTESPA, which, numerically, is 1-877-868-3772, and request that an application be mailed to them.
Counties will still have the ability to process registrations and mail-in and absentee applications and ballots, generate reports and export data for other continuing election processing, according to Boockvar’s statement.
Online services for the departments of Revenue and Human Services and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board were also affected.