Despite concerns regarding election integrity and executive overreach, the Board of Elections voted 3-0 Wednesday to establish six staffed mail-in ballot drop boxes for 2024.
Citizens in Allegheny County will have six additional locations to drop off mail-in ballots this election cycle thanks to a new plan adopted by the Board of Elections Wednesday.
While the 3-0 vote in favor of the resolution was undramatic, the road to approval was anything but.
The drama started last Thursday when At-Large Councilman Sam DeMarco, R-North Fayette, the Board of Elections’ lone Republican representative, filed suit against Democratic County Executive Sara Innamorato’s drop-off location plan. Councilman DeMarco alleged the County Executive overstepped her authority by announcing her plan without first securing approval from the county elections board.
On Monday, attorneys for both sides agreed to settle the suit, with officials acknowledging that issues regarding ballot return and satellite voting sites are required to be approved by the elections board during each election.
With the lawsuit settled, the issue regarding the ballot drop-off sites was added to the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.
To pass it would need the approval of a majority of the three-person elections board consisting of Councilman DeMarco, County Councilwoman-At-Large Bethany Hallam, D-Marshall, and County Executive Innamorato.
Despite filing suit against the original plan, Mr. DeMarco joined his two Democrat counterparts on the Board of Elections in approving the plan. DeMarco claimed his suit was never about the specifics of the resolution, but the way Ms. Innamorato presented the bill.
“Regardless of whether the board votes for or against the satellite drop-off locations, this is a win for the voters as decisions such as this MUST be made in the light of day with the public given their chance to weigh in via comment,’ DeMarco wrote in a post on X Tuesday.
He also made it clear that this plan does not allow for unstaffed, unsecured drop boxes, something that the Heritage Institute notes makes elections less secure and knocked Pennsylvania for having in their Election Integrity Scorecard.
“First of all, these are not drop boxes. These will be staffed locations. Staffed, manned, by county elections employees. There will be a county police officer at each of these locations,” he said in remarks following the Board of Elections meeting,
This newly passed plan establishes drop-off locations in downtown Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill, Moon, Plum, Wexford, Bethel Park, and McKeesport – the last of which was not in the original plan but added to the resolution Wednesday by Democrat At-Large Councilwoman Bethany Hallam.
