Montgomery County, Pennsylvania announced Friday the launch of the swing state’s “first Voter Services Mobile Satellite Office,” a customized van from which residents can register to vote and return completed ballots, among other things.
A resolution including a contract award for a “voter services” van was approved 2-1 in August by the board of county commissioners’ Democrat majority. Last week, the “mobile satellite office” made its first public appearance at a local fall festival, the city says. But the board’s Thomas DiBello, the Republican who did not vote for the van, tells The Federalist he does not support this mobile get-out-the-vote effort in the community ahead of next month’s election.
The van is equipped to provide the “same services as a regular satellite office,” according to the Montgomery County website. “During periods of high traffic,” the county says it “operate[s] [these] separate satellite locations to better serve … residents.”
“No appointment is needed to visit these locations,” the county website says.
This means citizens could register to vote, update their registration, request a mail-in ballot, and return their completed ballot at the van or at a regular satellite office in the few weeks left before Election Day.
The county is also allowing voters who mailed in ballots without properly marking the exterior envelope with a signature and date, to cure their ballot from the van so the vote can be counted, DiBello confirmed to The Federalist. It is a controversial practice often argued in Pennsylvania courts. The state election code
