Primary ballots to be mailed out starting next week

Voters can start using mail-in ballots next week, Westmoreland County election officials said.

Pennsylvania primary is April 23, but mail-in ballots will be available at the courthouse starting Monday, March 25.

Voters who already requested mail-in ballots could see them arrive in their mail boxes starting the following Monday, April 1, according to Westmoreland County Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey.

State courts on Friday approved the final version of the ballots allowing counties to begin to ramp up work to print and mail out ballots.

In Westmoreland County, mail-in ballot requests have slowed for what has become a primary with few contested races.

State row office offices, one Republican seat for a state House district representing the Murrysville area and two Democratic Party Congressional primaries feature contested primaries this spring in Westmoreland.

”We’re all caught up and have no backlog,” McCloskey said of mail-in ballot requests.

As of Friday, the county received 24,161 mail-in applications.

Nearly 30,000 voters requested mail-in ballots for last November’s general election.

The presidential election in 2020 saw nearly 60,000 Westmoreland County residents vote by mail during the first year it was approved for expanded use in Pennsylvania.

According to the election bureau, more than 73% of mail-in ballots requested in Westmoreland County have been from Democrats. Republicans account for more than 27% of mail-in ballot requests.

The deadline to apply for mail-in ballots for the primary is Tuesday, April 16.