Officials expect near-record voter turnout in Westmoreland County

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — Officials in Westmoreland County say they’re expecting near-record voter turnout for Tuesday’s Presidential Election.

“I think we’re going to have a high voter turnout around 85-90% across Westmoreland County,” said Westmoreland County Elections Director Greg McCloskey.

That’s between 215,000 to 230,000 voters casting a ballot in the county this election.

A good bit of those votes have already been turned in.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, just under 60,000 absentee ballots had been requested by Westmoreland voters. About 29,000 by Democrats, and 24,000 by Republicans.

About 26,000 Democrats have returned their ballots, as have about 21,000 Republicans.

That leaves just more than 3,200 ballots from each party yet to be returned.

“It’s 25% of the entire registered voters that actually used a different process than election day voting,” McCloskey.

There are fewer mail in ballots requested this year than in 2020. But, the return rate is higher, says Commissioner Doug Chew, a Republican.

There are also more Republicans using this method to vote this cycle.

“Republicans are about 40% of the total mail ballots that have been requested, and that includes the over-the-counter and the online postal method,” Chew told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek.

Donald Trump won Westmoreland County by nearly 30% in both 2016 and 2020. Despite the Kamala Harris campaign trying to chip away at suburban margins, Chew doesn’t think that will change, as registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 40,000 here.

“I don’t see a change in our margin here in Westmoreland,” he said.

Chew and McCloskey said they’re expecting absentee votes to be processed and counted before 10 p.m., with the unofficial results in the county posted before the night is over.

“We anticipate just staying until we can get all of our unofficial results up and not come back the next morning to keep counting,” McCloskey said.

They both want to remind voters that if you’re in line by 8 p.m., stay in line as you’ll still be able to vote.

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