The Pittsburgh Press (October 22, 1944)
34,000 votes from services received here
Returns averaging over 5,000 a week
One-third of the 100,000 military ballots for the presidential election – voted and ready to count – have been returned to the County Elections Department and tucked away in a bank vault for safekeeping.
The ballots continued to deluge the Elections Department last week when 5,000 were received, a slight drop from the previous week, but raising the total to 34,000 of the 100,242 mailed out, County Elections Director David Olbum said.
It was the fifth straight week that the return has hit a 5,000-a-week or better average.
Week of counting foreseen
With two weeks left before the Nov. 7 election, and nearly five weeks remaining before the deadline for the acceptance of military ballots, indications are that the final total will reach at least 50,000, and perhaps go over that figure.
Mr. Olbum said yesterday that if half of the absentee votes are returned in the County, “it will take at least a week to count them” once the tabulations by the Return Board get underway 15 days after Election Day.
If the race is close in Pennsylvania, the 390,000 military ballots, expected to be returned “could very easily” determine which way the state’s 35 electoral votes will go, thus delaying the national outcome until about Dec. 1, he said.
New York in same category
Mr. Olbum added:
Nothing could be more appropriate than to have the soldier vote decide a wartime election.
The final outcome in New York may also hinge on the military ballots, with more than half of the state’s 600,000 absentee votes already returned. In the 1940 election, the Democratic plurality was 224,000.
New York’s military vote laws, however, require the ballots to be returned on or before Nov. 3. They will be counted on Election Day, the same as civilian ballots, Mr. Olbum said, thus removing any delay in final tabulations.
Ballots still going out
He said:
If the margin between the two parties is 100,000 or so after the count of civilian votes, then the military count may well determine the winner in either Pennsylvania or New York.
Ballots are still being mailed out by the Elections Department to servicemen and women missed in the roundup of military voters and to those who have sent back ballots improperly filled out or otherwise defective.
Less than 2,000 ballots received so far have been defective or appear questionable. To all these voters, the Department has mailed new ballots, along with a letter explaining why the first ballot may not be valid.