Pennsylvania’s top election official visited the Penn State campus on Monday for the opening of a Centre County satellite elections office, three weeks before Election Day.
The new satellite office inside the Hammond Building along West College Avenue will allow citizens to register to vote, request mail ballots and return them on the spot, if they so choose.
“Satellite offices like this one are a terrific improvement to voter accessibility,” Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said.
“When I ran elections in Philadelphia County … we opened up a number of these offices. It was a really great improvement in terms of that level of accessibility. Voters can show up and return their ballot. It also benefits in-person voting because it’s one fewer person in line in front of you on Election Day. Sometimes there are lines; sometimes there are not. I know university areas, frequently, there are longer lines in [the presidential] election cycle than maybe some others.”
The Centre County Board of Elections in late September approved opening the satellite office earlier by a 2-1 vote, with Democrats Amber Concepcion and Mark Higgins voting in favor and Republican Steve Dershem voting against. The proposal was met with pushback by some residents and elected officials who questioned the need for the office and the extra work the late addition would create for staff, as well as the fairness of not having similar offices in other areas of the county.
At the same meeting, the board also approved offering election information and mail ballot applications at each of the county’s six senior citizen centers.
Concepcion, who chairs the elections board, and Higgins, said on Monday that the West College Avenue site was selected, in part, because it is at the heart of the Centre Region, the county’s most populated area with approximately 95,000 residents.
“The goal of this office is to provide convenient access for voters in a location that is both the population and employment center of the county, as well as the location with the highest concentration of new voters who may have questions for staff about the voting process,” Concepcion said.
Penn State is providing the space free of charge, but the satellite office does incur some additional costs. The Board of Commissioners — which constitutes the elections board — voted by the same 2-1 margin last week to approve a $7,809 contract with Johnson Controls security monitoring and recording equipment. The office is staffed by members of the expanded elections office staff for the run up to Election Day.
Ballots completed on site will be stored in a secure receptacle and taken to the county elections office in Bellefonte “every day or two,” Higgins said. Elections staff are not permitted under state law to begin opening ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
“Participating in elections is a sacred duty of citizens in a democracy and we are committed to running elections with all the safeguards and thoroughness that this sacred trust requires,” Concepcion said.
The last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania for the Nov. 5 election is Oct. 21, and the last day to request a mail ballot is Oct. 29.
The satellite office will be open for voter registration and mail ballot services this week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
It will be open for eligible voters to check their registration status and to request, complete and return mail ballots from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 22 to 25, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Oct. 28 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 29.
Mail ballots must be received by the county elections office by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5. In addition to the satellite office through Oct. 29, mail ballots can also, of course, be returned by mail, delivered in person to the county elections office at the Willowbank Building in Bellefonte until 8 p.m. on Nov. 5 or deposited in one of eight secure drop boxes around the county until 9 a.m. on Nov. 4.
Concepcion credited the county elections staff for their work leading up to Election Day.
“Our county staff have been hard at work processing new voter registrations, preparing the voting equipment that will be used on Nov. 5, ensuring we have all the poll workers that we need trained and ready to assist our voters, staffing our vote-by-mail processing center and processing mail-in ballot requests and returns,” she said.
Concepcion added that the county is working with the nonpartisan student organization PSU Votes to share information with students about the satellite office and voting.
Schmidt, meanwhile, reminded eligible college students that they can register to vote either at their university address or at their family’s home address. When a voter registration address is changed to a new county in Pennsylvania, the previous registration is automatically canceled.
“The board of elections in the county you moved from receives a notification from the county you moved to with your unique identifiers whether it’s your Social Security number, your driver’s license number or whatever else, to notify your former county to cancel your voter registration,” Schmidt said.
For more information on voting in Centre County, visit centrecountyvotes.gov.
