County To Add 7 More Election Drop Boxes

The Bucks County Board of Elections voted Thursday to add seven ballot drop boxes for the upcoming general election.

The county will have a total of 11 ballot drop boxes in place. The addition marks a jump from the three that were in place in 2020 and the four in use for the 2021 primary election.

The seven new locations are:

• Bensalem Library: 3700 Hulmeville Road, Bensalem Township
• Grundy Library: 680 Radcliffe Street, Bristol Borough
• New Hope Library: 93 W. Ferry Street, New Hope Borough
• Northampton Library: 25 Upper Holland Road, Northampton Township
• Perkasie Library: 491 Arthur Avenue, Perkasie Borough
• Riegelsville Library: 615 Easton Road, Riegelsville Borough
• Warminster Library: 1076 Emma Lane, Warminster Township

The sites are in addition to the existing locations at the Lower Bucks County Government Services Center in Bristol Township, the Bucks County Administration Building in Doylestown Borough, at the county center just outside of Quakertown, and at the Yardley-Makefield Free Library in Lower Makefield Township.

The Board of Elections, which is made up of the three county commissioners, voted 2-1 in favor of adding the drop boxes. Commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Bob Harvie were in support of the seven new box locations and Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo voted no.

DiGirolamo said he supports adding boxes, but wanted only two or three new boxes added.

During the May primary election, 24 percent of votes were delivered via drop boxes.

“We tried to space them out so people can get to them throughout the county,” Harvie said. “The idea of using libraries is that they have hours that include nights and weekends and will hopefully get people interested in what else the libraries offer.” 

With roughly 475,000 registered voters, the eleven locations would provide about one drop box for every 43,000 voters.

While surrounding counties have more drop boxes than Bucks County, Harvie said he preferred to get to one drop box per 30,000 residents.

In the May primary election, 1,300 mail-in ballots were rejected and not counted because they were received after the Election Day deadline, Ellis-Marseglia said.

All three board members voted to provide a sheriff’s deputy, county security officer, or Board of Elections staffer at each drop box to oversee its operation.

The county has previously used sheriff’s deputies and county security to oversee security at the existing locations.

The county also plans to add security cameras for each location, officials said.

Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub, who is a Republican running for re-election, told the Board of Elections that the drop boxes are safe. He endorsed adding staff or security to be at each location and have the ballot boxes monitored by cameras.

“I think it makes sense for us to go to great pains to go to extraordinary lengthens to make sure this process is secure and make sure the public understands and believes the process is secure. We need the public to have confidence in this process,” Weintraub said.

“Not only is the system safe and working,” he stated, “it is secure.”

Weintraub and Ellis-Marseglia had a back-and-forth over how to make sure people don’t drop off a family member’s ballot, which is illegal. Weintraub said that in the cases that were investigated, there turned out to be no criminal intent.

Ed Tokmajian, a Bensalem Township Council member, praised the “strong leadership” at county government. He said he supported adding the ballot boxes, noting it could take up to 25 minutes to arrive at the existing box in Levittown from parts of his community, the most populated in the county.

Joseph Cullen, the vice chairperson of the Bucks County Republican Committee, said election drop boxes are acceptable, but he wanted to make sure safeguards were in place. He stated the county adding more drop boxes increases the potential for “mischief.”

“I’m not saying there is fraud, but things do happen every election cycle,” he said.

Bonnie Chang, a member of the Bucks Voice voter engagement group, said the group had gathered more than 650 signatures on a petition for adding more mail-in ballots in the county.

The group brought a New Orleans-style brass band in early June to deliver the petition to the Board of Elections. Video from Doylestown Intelligencer reporter Christopher Ullery of the band and dancing drop boxes went viral on Twitter.

Yep, just a typical day in Doylestown… pic.twitter.com/AAfnCmKtbM

— Christopher Ullery (@ulleryatintell) June 2, 2021

All three Bucks County Commissioners and peers throughout the state have called on the state legislature to update Pennsylvania’s election laws to make the process easier for voters and election staff. The commissioners have asked for updates to the deadlines for requesting and sending mail-in ballots and allowing county election staff to begin counting mail-in ballots earlier than election day.

“There is nothing more important than our election process and people being able to vote. This is democracy at work, and we need help,” said DiGirolamo, a former state representative whose district covered Bensalem Township. 

“I’m begging our legislature and our governor to come up with a compromise – put it in statues so we know what we’re working with.”

“This is just an example, again, of how the legislature failed us,” Marseglia said.

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