Montco is getting an early start on mail voting for Nov. election after delays during the primary

Montgomery County voters can now request and return mail ballots at the county’s main government office building: One Montgomery Plaza in Norristown.

After slow delivery of mail ballots during April’s primary election, Montgomery County is one of the first counties in Pennsylvania to print and mail ballots for November’s general election.

Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat, cast his mail ballot Tuesday, the first to be cast in the county for the election.

Makhija delivered his vote one day after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court confirmed Cornel West could not appear on the state’s ballot as a third-party candidate, enabling counties across the state to begin printing and distributing ballots to voters.

Commissioner Tom DiBello, a Republican, said the county was getting its ballots out early enough this cycle that he wasn’t concerned about slow delivery. “We’re in good shape and the ballots are going to be going out starting later this week,” he said. “They have plenty of time to get them back.”

The county will send roughly 115,000 ballots over the next week or two. Voters can continue to request a mail ballot until Oct. 29. Starting Oct. 4, there will be eight satellite election offices across the county and 18 ballot drop boxes.

Former President Donald Trump posted to X on Tuesday that early voting had begun in Pennsylvania. While that is true in Montgomery County, that is not the case statewide as counties complete testing on ballots, print them, and send them.

Philadelphia is not likely to start distributing ballots until next week, while Jim Allen, the election director in Delaware County, said ballots there may not be available until around Oct. 1.

A spokesperson for Bucks County said ballots there will likely not be mailed until October. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Chester County said ballots will also go out there in early October.