Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Voters turn out to return absentee ballots
MEDIA » With less than three weeks until Election Day, thousands of mail- in ballots have begun streaming back to Delaware County voting officials, one vote at a time.
Voting officialsmailed outmore than 100,000 ballots in the past 10 days and this week a steady stream of voters were lining up to deposit them into a black box just inside the county Government
Center. Despite having prepaid postage, many voters brought them to election officials in person because they are suspicious of the reliability of the post office.
“I’m just anxious to get my vote in and make sure it is counted,” said Eleanor Harding of Haverford. “I’ve been having nightmares about my vote. I want to make sure it is counted, so we came to the place.”
Asked about the mail, she said she was leery of the post office efficiency noting erratic service on her street.
“I talked to my mail carrier about it and he said he had seen no ballots on our street. Then at the end of last week, our ballots finally came,” Harding said.
“We don’t trust the mail,” exclaimed Jackie and John Harriz of Glen Mills when asked why they were bringing their ballots in person. “It was seven days to get the ballot after we were notified it was sent out. I want my vote to count.”
The couple mailed their absentee ballot for the primary and had no problem.
“Idon’t know if I trust the system of putting it into a mailbox,” saidBertMarquis ofWallingford, who said recent comments from President Donald Trump about voting bymail had troubled him. Marquis also voted in person in the June primary. Asked why he changed to absentee, he said he didn’t want long lines or bad weather to be an issue. “You hear in Philly - which is not here, but Philly – about 10hour waits. I just do this - this is good.”
Marquis added, “I vote every election. If you complain, you need to have voted.”
Evelyn Hopkinson of Drexel Hill came by with her daughter- in- law Erikka Leverich of Lansdowne.
“I have an illness and don’t want to stand on line, four, five hours like I’ve seen on the news, so I decided this was the best way to do it,” said Hopkinson. “It requires attention to details and you have to be very, very careful how you put the information on the ballots.”
Asked why she didn’t mail it in, she also noted comments from Trump.
“I don’t trust him,” she said.
Leverich said she hasn’t been gettingmail for weeks and brought it to the attention of U. S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D- 5 of Swarthmore.
“I went to the post office and they didn’t have an explanation, so I felt more comfortable dropping it off in person,” said Leverich.
A number of voters said they like the systemthat allows absentee voting for everyone.
“I like it, especially for older people. It’s wonderful,” said Jean Keesey of Media. “We voted by mail inthe primary and they had a question, ‘ Do you wish to vote by mail in the other elections?’ so we put yes.”
“I want to get away from the crowd on the last day,” said David Kitonga, when asked why he was voting early. Kitonga, who runs a home care agency, said the absentee voting saved time. “I’m trying to avoid the crowd during COVID. I like the way elections are organized. It eases the tension of the last day. Many people avoid voting because they don’t have a lot of time. I’ma businessman; any time to me counts.”
“I’mnot standing 18 hours in November in the cold. In 2016, I was 20 minutes outside in the pouring rain,” said EllenHeight of Radnor, who drove to the courthouse to deliver her vote.
“Besides - what if I diebetween now and Nov. 3rd? I
want to make sure I voted,” joked her husbandMalcolm Height. “I want to dump Trump. We need bulldozers to empty the swamp.”
“And then Clorox the White House,” added his wife.
“I’m glad for all the options there are,” said Amy Eisen of Haverford, who had first gone to the Upper Darby voter services center
but found it closed. “Options are needed right now. As the poster says, everyone needs to make a plan and the plan needs to have an A, B and C.”
Robert and Melissa Bair live a block from the courthouse and decided to walk their ballots over themselves. The couple also voted absentee in the primary and, with the pandemic, wanted
to minimize contact.
“At the time we made the decision, everything was kind of shut down,” said Melissa Bair. “In the primary, we got it right on time. I went to the site, they came and we’re voting.”
“I just wanted to do something different this year,” said Jeannie “Ski” of Boothwyn. She declined to give her full last name because it has 13 letters in it. “It gets crazy here at lunchtime, and even worse after work. Everybody is going to be coming here. It’s safer.”
Meanwhile, technical issues have held up the use of remote voting boxes which have been set up around the county. Troy Hornung found the ballot box at the HaverfordMunicipal building was locked when he tried to drop off his ballot.
“I saw something that they were having it here so I thought I wouldswing by,” saidHornung. Hewas going to investigate where else he could drop it off.
“The holdup has been that the county’s security vendor was apparently unable to get solar arrays for the cameras by the specified delivery date of Oct.
5,” county Councilwoman Christine Reuther wrote in an email Tuesday.
Reutherwrote that the issue has been solved and the vendor expects the approved cameras to be installed by the end of the weekend.
Drop boxes must be under video or manned surveillance to accept ballots. The goal is tomake sure the municipal drop boxes are accepting ballots no later than two weeks ahead of the election so people who are ready to return their ballots closer to the election know they have a secure option close to home.
Reuther said officials are also looking into keeping the boxes in place as part of the County’s long termvote by mail infrastructure. “I think that could provide a great benefit in future elections since we used grant money to purchase and install them.”
Officials remind voters using absentee ballots to be sure to place the ballot inside the ‘ secrecy envelope’ and then inside the self- addressedmailing envelope. If voters care to, they canmail it in and the postage will be paid for by the county.