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Voters who opted to receive annual mail ballots will receive an application in the mail this month, according to Forrest Lehman, director of elections at Voter Services.
"It is a mailing to all the voters who have previously requested to be on the annual vote by mail list," Lehman told the Lycoming County Commissioners at their weekly meeting.
The mailing is required by Pennsylvania's Act 77 which expanded voting by mail-in ballots.
"We're going into a presidential year and people are going to start getting a lot of stuff in their mailboxes. This is the one time it actually is from the board of elections," Lehman said.
About 10,000 county residents will be receiving the applications, which include a cover letter, the application for a mail ballot and also a cancellation form in case a voter wants to be taken off the list to vote by mail.
"Sometimes people accidentally get on here because they just checked a box on a previous vote by mail application that maybe they didn't intend to do to get this application annually," Lehman explained.
By filling out the application, voters will get mail ballots for both the primary and the November
election. If the application is not filled out and sent back to Voter Services, that person will not receive mail ballots for this year's elections.
"If they don't do it, they can still go vote in person. They could choose to apply to vote by mail later in the year. There's nothing to preclude that so they could just throw it away, but they will continue to get these applications every year as long as they're on the list," Lehman said.
"If they do the cancellation form, they're off the list," he added.
As an alternative to the paper application, voters may also complete an online application to vote by mail at votespa.com/applymailballot. The Office of Voter Services can be reached at: 570-327-2267 to answer any questions.
In other business during their meeting, the commissioners approved the following: a mental health services agreement with Restorative Behavioral Health to provide tele-psychiatric care at the prison; a grant and monitoring agreement with the New Love Center for $40,000; a grant and monitoring agreement for the Greater Lycoming Habitat for Humanity of $40,000 to go toward the Scott Street projects; and a subrecipient monitoring agreement with the Asbury Foundation for $48,000.
Commissioner Scott L. Metzger was approved as the commissioner county representative for the SEDA-County of Government board of directors and Howard Fry as the county's second representative/member at large.
Three appointed and elected officials who were not available for the Jan. 2 inauguration were sworn in at the meeting. They are: Holly Thomas, deputy clerk of courts; Kassandra Houseknecht, deputy coroner; and Christopher Kenyon, county solicitor.
The salary board, which consists of Commissioners Metzger, Marc Sortman and Mark Mussina and Krista Rogers, county controller, voted to add a part-time human resources business partner which would be temporary until the new person is trained and not to exceed 1,000 hours. The vote was 3-1 with Rogers voting no.
Under personnel, the commissioners approved the following full-time replacements at the pay rates listed: William Simmers and Roan Confer, assistant district attorneys, $62,315 per year each; and Christopher Heisley, correctional officer I at the prison, $20 per hour.
The next commissioners' meeting will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in the Commissioners' Board Room, first floor Executive Plaza, 330 Pine St.