Requests for mail-in ballots have surged in Allegheny County since the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s push to overhaul rules for voting by mail in the midterm election.
Polling, however, shows fewer Americans intend to vote by mail this year. Even Democrats, who have more readily embraced mail-in voting in recent years, say they are rethinking their voting plans — a new NBC poll showed 23% of Democrats said they planned to vote by mail this year, down from 34% two years ago.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March requiring states to adopt a uniform envelope style for mailed ballots and submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal the administration was developing. The Postal Service could have refused to deliver ballots in states that didn’t comply.
The Supreme Court blocked the proposed changes in mid-September.
In the roughly two weeks since, Allegheny County has received an average of more than 700 requests a day for mail-in ballots, according to Jessica Garofolo, the county’s director of administrative services.
Still, requests remain down this year compared to 2022 — the last gubernatorial election year. As of this week, Allegheny County officials had received about 127,000 requests for mail-in ballots, down about 6% from the same point in 2022.
“I don’t know if it was directly related to that Supreme Court decision or if it was a combination of that and the fact that we’re getting closer to the election,” Garofolo said. “But I believe it was definitely a factor. I think (the proposed changes) created confusion with voters.
“We’re still below where we were at by this time in the last gubernatorial election, but we’ve definitely seen an improvement over where we
were before the (Supreme Court) decision,” she added.
Westmoreland County officials didn’t report any significant impact from the Supreme Court decision.
Through Thursday, the county had received nearly 29,000 requests for mail-in ballots. That included nearly 19,000 from Democrats, more than 8,500 from Republicans and about 2,400 from independents and members of other parties, according to Election Bureau Director Scott Ross.
Nearly 21,000 people voted by mail in the May primary.
No changes to the mail-in voting process were implemented for the midterm election.
Westmoreland voters who requested mail-in ballots should expect to see them delivered to their homes starting Oct. 7, Ross said.
“My recommendation is that as soon as you get it in the mail, fill it out and get it back to us. Don’t hold it,” Ross said.
Ballots are due back to the county courthouse by 8 p.m. Nov. 3. Ballots can be returned through the mail or by dropping them off in person at the Election Bureau at the county courthouse in Greensburg.
Westmoreland Commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew have rejected repeated requests to install drop boxes both at the courthouse entrance and at various locations throughout the county where voters could return their ballots. They contend drop boxes installed for the 2020 and 2022 elections were lightly used.
Allegheny County began sending out mail-in ballots last weekend. The county is expanding voting options this year, offering five satellite election offices where voters can apply for, receive, complete and return a mail ballot as well as more than a dozen ballot drop-off locations.
Voters also will be able to cast ballots in person at their assigned polling place from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 3.
Voters can look up the location of their polling place at https://www.pa.gov/services/vote/find-your-local-polling-place.