Mail-in ballots heading out to voters in Washington, Greene counties
Fayette County ballots sent last month
Mail-in ballots for voters in Washington and Greene counties will be landing in mailboxes this week ahead of the May 20 primary election, while they began going out in Fayette County last month.
Washington County’s elections office began sending their allotment of more than 11,000 requested ballots on Friday and Monday, with the bulk of them expected to be delivered this week. As expected, Democrats are outpacing Republicans with the number of requests, asking for 8,186 mail-in ballots compared to the 3,136 from GOP voters.
The process in sending out the ballots was delayed slightly due to the ballot challenge for the Canonsburg area magistrate’s race that was appealed to the state Commonwealth Court last month, but ultimately resolved.
“We sent the first chunk of ballots out Friday and are sending the second batch Monday,” Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said. “We are processing and sending more out as requests come in.”
The nearly 1,700 mail-in ballots in Greene County are going out now, so they should be arriving at voters’ houses in the coming days. There are 1,211 that have gone out to Democratic voters and another 482 that have been sent to Republicans.
“We are in the process of packing them right now,” Greene County Elections Director Kierra Cannon said Monday. “It’s running pretty smooth.”
In Fayette County, the elections staff began sending out their more than 7,000 mail-in ballots earlier, with them beginning to arrive the week of April 21. Elections Director Mary Beth Kuznik said 5,155 have been sent so far to Democrats and 2,021 have gone out to Republicans.
“We had no (ballot) challenges, which does help,” Kuznik said. “And our professional mailing company was very good and quick getting them out.”
Understandably, the number of mail-in ballots being sent by each county is down significantly with less interest than last November’s presidential election and fewer competitive races in the primary.
In Greene County, the biggest race on the ballot is for Court of Common Pleas judge, with Patrick Fitch and Chris Simms running against each other in the Republican primary, while Simms is also cross-filed as a Democratic candidate. The only countywide race of significance in Washington County is for controller, with Brenda Davis, Tony Jacob DeLost, Pat Phillips and Heather Sheatler running in the Republican primary, with no Democratic candidates filed for any of the row office positions.
In Fayette County, incumbent Recorder of Deeds Jon Marietta Jr. is running for reelection against challenger Christina Becker in the Republican primary, with the winner facing Democrat James Santilli in the November general election. Coreyann Fluker and Trinette Schmidt-Cunningham are running in the Democratic primary for Fayette County jury commissioner, with the winner competing against Republican Frank Mutnansky.
Statewide, Republicans have competitive races for state appellate courts, with Maria Battista of Clarion County and Ann Marie Wheatcraft of Chester County competing for Superior Court, and Matt Wolford of Erie County and Josh Prince of Berks County running for Commonwealth Court. The winners in that primary will face off against Brandon Neuman of Washington County for Superior Court and Stella Tsai of Philadelphia for Commonwealth Court, both of whom are Democrats running unopposed in the primary.
There are also a variety of local government and school board positions up for grabs this year.
Monday was the last day to register for the May 20 primary election or change party affiliation or address, while next Tuesday is the final day to request a mail-in ballot.