The Pittsburgh Press (October 8, 1944)
Soldier vote return shows slight drop
Olbum expects more than 50,000 ballots
Although the return of military ballots dropped off slightly during the past week, nearly a quarter of the 98,727 sent out have been returned to the County Elections Department.
The department received about 5,500 ballots from servicemen and women during the week ending yesterday for the presidential election on Nov. 7, a drop of more than 1,000 over the previous week’s return.
The total number sent back so far is 23,500 or 24 percent of those mailed out, County Elections Director David Olbum said.
Awaits upswing
He explained that the decrease was from a better-than-1,000 daily return to approximately 850 a day last week. He said he expects the return to take an upward swing again before the deadline for acceptance on Nov. 22, two weeks after the election.
Additional ballots are being mailed out every day to servicemen and women who have failed to receive a ballot or have improperly filled out one that they mailed in, Mr. Olbum said. The total number sent out will go over the 100,000 mark before Election Day.
Expects 50,000
Of the total, he estimated that the number of absentee votes returned before the deadline will exceed 50,000.
The ballots are being kept in a vault for safekeeping at the Union Trust Company until they are counted by Return Board on Nov. 22. Ballots will be valid if they are postmarked on or before Nov. 7 and received before Nov. 22.