The county Bureau of Elections has received thousands of requests pouring in for mail-in ballots for the June 2 primary election in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and the April 17 exit of the elections bureau director.

But Leslie Osche, county commissioner chairwoman, said although stressed, elections bureau workers are keeping up with the huge influx of mail-in ballot requests.

“There are so many stacks of paper down there,” Osche said of the elections office.

Wil White, county solicitor, said as of noon Monday, the county has received 16,138 requests for mail-in ballots.

Of those requests, 9,087 were from Democrats and 7,035 from Republicans.

The remainder were requests that had to be thrown out because the voter listed a party affiliation other than Democrat or Republican, White said.

More than 10,000 ballots have been mailed out, and a large load was taken to the Butler Post Office on Monday.

“And more are arriving every day,” White said.

Because voting by mail-in ballot was made available this year by Gov. Tom Wolf in response to the pandemic, the only way to illustrate the huge task by comparison is to look at the number of requests for absentee ballots last year.

That number was 807 for the 2019 primary election.

Mailed wrong ballot

With this year's influx of mail-in ballot requests, coupled with the hiring of new and temporary staff to process the requests, there are bound to be mistakes.

White said seven voters have called to say they received a ballot for the opposite party for which they are registered.

Osche said of the two clerks in the elections bureau, one resigned for health reasons, and the other exited when Shari Brewer resigned as director of the bureau last month.

Three new clerks were hired to work 1,000 hours each in the upcoming year, and five “temps” were brought in to help tackle the huge task of processing and sending mail-in ballots, Osche said.

White said four volunteers, who are high school students, were brought in last week to help prepare the envelopes for mailing.

Osche said the clerks must ensure each person requesting a mail-in ballot is a registered voter, then each request is sorted by precinct, then party, then name.

“Obviously, somewhere along the line, someone stuffed the wrong ballots,” Osche said. “The more people you introduce, the more element of human error you're going to have.”

Dane Winkler, who appears on the Democratic ballot as a candidate for a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in the 16th Congressional District, was one who received a Republican ballot.

Winkler received his ballot Wednesday. He noticed immediately that it was a Republican ballot.

“The first thing that popped into my head is 'I have to call the election bureau tomorrow because the election is less than a month away,'” Winkler said.

He said he called Thursday, and the clerk apologized and said the correct ballot would be mailed Friday, May 8.

Winkler received his new ballot in Monday's mail.

“My antenna went up, because I've heard lots of stories about voter suppression in other states,” Winkler said of receiving the wrong ballot, “but we've been pretty fortunate in Pennsylvania to never have had those problems.”

Osche said the county expected and planned for a certain number of mail-in ballot requests, but not the large number that arrived.

Osche is confident the elections bureau workers will be able to process all the ballot requests by the May 26 deadline imposed by Wolf.

“My great concern is that the U.S. mail system isn't going to be able to process this in a timely manner,” Osche said.

She said if a voter calls to request a mail-in ballot, an application must be mailed to their home.

The voter fills out the application and mails it back to the elections bureau.

A ballot is then mailed to the voter.

Those who apply online are saving the elections bureau workers the step of mailing out an application for a mail-in ballot, so Osche said applying online would help the county.

Online applications for mail-in ballots are available at votespa.com.

Poll workers

Osche said a slight problem exists in manning all the precincts June 2, as some poll workers will not be returning due to the pandemic.

She said poll workers from two of the nine polling places in Cranberry Township have said they will not return.

Those positions have been restaffed and three days of training for new and existing poll workers was to begin Tuesday.

She said a few poll workers in precincts in Butler Township 4, Winfield Township and Slippery Rock also chose not to return due to the pandemic.

Some were elderly, and others had health issues they felt would make them vulnerable to COVID-19, Osche said.

County officials began planning for safe elections during the pandemic before the state required it, Osche said, by arranging to have cleaning agents at each polling site so voting surfaces can be sanitized between each voter.

Gloves, masks, a separate pen for each voter and minimal paper-passing are included in the county's plan to keep polling places safe, she said.

Barriers to guide traffic plus volunteers outside to ensure only a few voters enter a polling place at a time are also planned for the primary election.

“A lot of extra precautions are being taken,” Osche said.

For those interested in applying for a mail-in ballot for Pennsylvania's upcoming June 2 primary election:- Call to request an application: 724-284-5309- Apply online: votespa.comAll applications must be returned to the Butler County Bureau of Elections by May 26.