The Allegheny County Board of Elections has approved satellite voting and ballot drop-off times and locations around the County. See the list below and a helpful FAQ courtesy Board member Bethany Hallam, Allegheny County Council, At Large.Today's Allegheny County Board of Elections meeting contained LOTS of useful information and answers to (hopefully) ALL of your General Election questions! We voted unanimously to approve 8 satellite voting locations - complete with drop boxes, too (picture of locations posted below) - and to increase the pay of poll workers & constables to $200.



I did by best to take notes at today's meeting and typed up what I hope is a helpful Q & A based off of questions I received by phone, e-mail, social media, and weekly co-governing elections sessions. If you have any additional questions that I might've missed, please feel free to drop them in the comments below!



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ELECTIONS 2020 Q & A



Q1: Can you void a mail-in ballot request at a satellite voting location?



A1: No. There will be no spoiling or cancelling of mail-in ballots or provisional voting at these locations. The locations will each have drop boxes to return ONLY YOUR OWN completed mail-in ballot.



Q2: I signed up to be a poll worker, but I haven’t heard back yet. Is that normal? What can I expect?



A2: 6600 poll workers are needed. Only 3500 have been scheduled for training and poll assignments. Elections Division is catching up on scheduling, but has received enough requests to staff all locations. You will receive a letter in the mail. If selected, you and the rest of the poll workers & constables on Election Day will be paid $200 for your service. This increase in pay is being funded by CARES Act money.



Q3: Can you register to vote at a satellite voting location?



A3: No. If you have not yet registered to vote but want to vote at one of these locations, you must do so online or by mail ahead of time. Once your application has been approved (which you can check the status of online at votespa.com), only then may you vote at a satellite location.



Q4: When will mail-in ballots start being sent out? When can you start showing up to Elections Division to vote in-person absentee?



A4: Both of these things will start happening within 7-10 days from today. Although the Department of State certified the ballots today, we still need to approve ballots for each district and then print them before they are ready.



Q5: How will the drop boxes at each satellite location be secured? How often will they be emptied?



A5: The drop boxes will no actually ever be, but boxes will be switched out as they fill up. Drop boxes will be padlocked and marked. In secrecy envelope and signed declaration envelope



Q6: How does in-person absentee voting at the satellite locations work? What is the process?



A6: Fill out the application. Go to someone to check SURE system to be sure you haven’t already voted (system updated in real time!) Process app. Print ballot for your district. Go to privacy booth to hand-mark paper ballot. Place own ballot into secure locked ballot box



Q7: When will a list of polling locations be finalized?



A7: We are required to finalize this list 2 weeks prior to Election Day. You can check the updated list at www.alleghenycounty.us/elections/in-person-voting.aspx



Q8: Are all of the polling locations going to be open? How will I know where to vote on Election Day?



A8: All polling locations will be open! As of today there are 38 precincts whose locations have told us we cannot have a location there (most in city of Pittsburgh), but this number increases and decreases almost daily! Every voter will be mailed a postcard informing them of where to vote.



Q9: When will poll worker training start? What does it look like?



A9: The first training class was 9/11. There will be 174 24-student trainings. It is 2.5 hours long. Judge of Elections, Minority & Majority Inspectors will train in-person. Additional poll workers will do an online training. Only in-person training will be paid. Online training will be a powerpoint. In-person training will also include an in-person voting machine demonstration. Elections Division website will post updated poll worker manual as soon as it is finalized. Training will also spend time explaining spoiling of ballots and provisional ballots.



Q10: What does the in-person voting process look like at the polls on Election Day?



A10: Poll workers will be provided plenty of PPE, and social distancing requirements will be in place. Check in with the first poll worker, your name will be verified in the poll book which will be printed after the last day to apply for a mail-in ballot (Oct. 27th!). If you applied for a mail-in ballot but want to vote in-person, you must request a provisional ballot because you will have already been marked as “voted” even if you never returned your ballot. If you applied for a mail-in ballot and bring the ENTIRE contents of the ballot to the poll, unmarked, you will be able to have your ballot “spoiled” and vote in-person, without a provisional ballot. Once you receive your ballot, you will darken the ovals of your selections, then take your ballot to the DS200 ballot scanner and scan your own ballot to be counted. Each polling location will also have a ballot marking device to assist folks who are unable to mark their ballot on their own.



Q11: How many ballot applications have been processes as of today? Is there a backlog? How quickly can mail-in ballots be processed?



A11: As of noon today, 271,680 applications have been processed. Online applications were processed first. There is a backlog of paper applications currently. Online applications going forward will be processed same day. Once ballots are sent out, you can expect same day processing of ballots received, as they are being returned directly to the Elections Division warehouse.



Q12: How many registered voters are there as of today compared to how many there were in the Primary?



A12: As of today, there are about 912,000 registered voters in Allegheny County, compares to about 899,000 in the Primary.



Q13: Can my mail-in ballot be denied due to variations in my signature?



A13: Department of State put out guidance saying Elections Division workers were not trained handwriting experts, and that they are not to deny ballots due to quality of signature on declaration envelope. Act 77 (that legislated no-excuse mail-in voting in PA) does not allow challenges outside of Elections Division. Elections Division is seeking further parameters from Department of State on what could potentially disqualify a signature, as their orders seemed to “water down” signature requirements.



Q14: If my mail-in ballot is denied for any reason, how will I know?



A14: If there is no signature, the ballot will be set aside. There is a function of the state SURE system to scan the voter’s barcoded envelope and send an email and letter to any voter whose ballot is set aside for any reason, and that function will be used for the first time in the General Election. The ballot tracker system at www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/Pages/BallotTracking.aspx will show this declined status as well so that you have time to vote via another method.



Q15: What is the security in place for the warehouse housing the mail-in ballots?



A15: The county purchased a ew sorting machine with a timestamp that opens envelopes. Employees working double shifts will feed ballots into the sorter to scan barcodes on ballots coming in and get credit for voting. There is a 30 camera security system with stored information. There are security cages to see stored ballots. There will also be 24/7 in-person security on the facility.



Q16: How quickly will ballots be counted and when will counting of mail-in ballots begin?



A16: As we did in the Primary, mail-in ballots will begin to be counted by 200 workers at 7am when the polls open. 100,000 secrecy envelopes will be opened per hour. We purchased 2 addition DS850 scanners for a total of 10 high speed ballot scanners that can count 40,000 ballots per hour. It is possible that ballots will be counted even quicker than in the Primary.



Q17: Will we be utilizing a 3rd party mailing company to assist with the mailing of mail-in ballots like we did in the Primary?



A17: Yes. We will extract files from sure system of everyone applied and send them to a company called Midwest Direct. They have requested one file per day. They will print, fold, & stuff ballots in envelopes and mail them to voters.



Q18: When do mail-in ballots have to be received by in order to be counted?



A18: Ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received on or before 5pm on Nov. 6th to be counted. Sometimes mail gets through without postmark, and this is not the voter’s fault so ballots received through USPS without a postmark will be counted as long as they are received by Nov. 6th ... See MoreSee Less