Letter to the editor: Harder to vote in Westmoreland

In Westmoreland County, Republican commissioners just made it harder for you to vote.

In previous years, if you didn’t receive your mail-in ballot in time to complete and have it delivered, you had the option of putting your ballot in a secured drop box. This assured your vote was received on a timely basis and that your vote was counted.

During the Sept. 28 Election Board meeting, County Commissioners Doug Chew and Sean Kertes “refused to vote on a plan to install one drop box for mail-in ballots at the courthouse,” claiming that drop boxes used in recent elections were underused and costly (“Republican commissioners remove ballot drop box from Westmoreland courthouse,” Sept. 28, TribLIVE). However, in discussing costs to administer a box in the courthouse, the Republican commissioners made no mention of $1.267 million Election Integrity Grant Program funds Westmoreland County is receiving for exactly these kinds of expenses.

Elections Director Greg McCloskey said more than 72% of this year’s applications for mail-in ballots were received from Democratic voters. What he didn’t say was that more than half of all applications come from senior citizens — with Republican seniors applying at an even higher rate than Democratic seniors.

So why are Republicans reducing options — especially for our seniors and working citizens — to have their vote safely, securely and conveniently recorded? Maybe they don’t want your vote.

Michelle McFall

Murrysville

The writer is chair of the Westmoreland County Democratic Committee.