Aston Township officials have joined two other municipalities in deciding to remove county election drop boxes for mail-in votes.
During a meeting this week, commissioners voted unanimously to remove the box from the old township building.
They joined Upper Chichester and Bethel who have gotten rid of the drop boxes. Newtown Township had voted to remove the box but replaced it after complaints from residents.
During public comment, a resident asked why the box was being removed.
Board Vice President Michael Higgins told the resident that the building is vacant and there has been a lot of complaints from residents who don’t trust it.
“You’re a bright guy, you’ve seen the news and so forth about alleged harvesting of ballots and I’ve had a lot of seniors ask me: Is it safe,” Higgins said.
There have been no documented cases of ballots being harvested in Delaware County and each box has a video camera recording all activity at the box.
Township solicitor Michael L. Maddren said the bigger issue is one of viability.
“You have a vacant building and a property that is not being looked at … and now you are inviting the public to come to this vacant property. The concern is if there is a crack in the sidewalk, some sort of pothole develops in the driveway, we’re not going to be on top of it like we would be if we were in that building.”
He said his recommendation was to not have it at that building.
Recently the township moved out of its old Pennell Road building and is now leasing space at 2 New Road with plans to construct a new building by the fall of 2025.
Commissioner Joe McGinn said they have settled on building on the campus at the community center.
Jim Allen, elections director for Delaware County, said elections officials approached the township about putting the box at the community center, but officials declined.
The county is looking at a possible replacement that will serve the Upper Chichester, Aston and Bethel area, and will consider that at the March 20 elections board meeting.
During the 2022 general election a little more than half of the 58,000-plus mail-in ballots that were cast in Delaware County were returned via drop boxes.
Over 250 ballots mailed in through postal and delivery services arrived too late and could not be counted.
“Using the mail is great up to a point, and that point is a week before election day,” Allen said. “Using a drop box you are actually bypassing the third party handling it. You’re going directly to the election authority.”
Allen said the county needs to know that drop boxes will be open as they prepare the inserts that go with the coming primary election mail-in ballots, to be sure they are accurate.
Alan said any Delaware County voters may use any of the more than three dozen drop boxes in the county, which he called the most extensive network in Pennsylvania.
