[REDSTATE] Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, a county that Trump won by over 30 points in 2016, has had a "snafu" in the distribution of ballots. The ballots, which were supposed to be sent out this week to voters, never arrived.County officials blamed the lost ballots on an independent contractor responsible for distributing the ballots, saying that the ballots were not lost — rather, they were never sent out. The officials stated that the issue was resolved, and that ballots should begin being sent out Friday morning, but did not state when the process would be completed by or when they expected to be all caught up. They only said that they expected Mid-West Direct (the vendor) to be able to get through the backlog over the weekend, and for the process to run smoothly from that point forward.
We all know that, if this were a Democrat-heavy county, this would have made national news. Trump won Pennsylvania by about 45,000 votes in 2016, so a 60,000-vote, alleged mistake could decide the outcome of the election for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There should be more scrutiny placed on the mail vendor, Mid-West Direct, to ascertain exactly what may have led to the problem in the first place. It is not clear if Mid-West Direct only processes the ballots for mailing as provided by the county or whether or not they produce ballots and mail them from data provided from the county.
If the ballots were to be provided this week and were not, this could lead to a challenge in the courts to extend the deadline for the ballots to be returned. In neighboring Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh and a Democrat-heavy area, mailed ballots on September 24th, 12 days before Westmoreland County even disclosed the issue with the unsent ballots. That means that an argument can be made for an extension of at least three or four days for the delay, if not closer to 10 or 12 days, for the difference from other counties that distributed ballots earlier.