Chester County voters will have round-the-clock access to ballot drop boxes at the West Goshen county government center and the West Whiteland public library starting Monday, Oct. 12.

The Chester County Board of Elections voted 2-1 on Wednesday, Sept. 16, to adopt a new election administration manual for the November general election. The manual authorizes 13 drop box locations countywide, open seven days a week. At least two of those sites will accept ballots 24 hours a day.

Commissioners Josh Maxwell, the board's Democratic chairperson, and Marian Moskowitz, the Democratic vice chairperson, voted yes. Republican Commissioner Eric Roe voted no.

The four-hour meeting at 313 W. Market St. in West Chester drew nearly 100 people. Most of those who spoke during public comment criticized the county over election integrity concerns.

"Voters who work different shifts want the same access to drop boxes as every other voter; by a 2-1 vote, we did," Maxwell told the Daily Local News.

Roe pushed back with two failed motions. He moved to require all drop boxes be staffed by at least two Voter Services representatives and operate only between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. He also moved to require permanent video surveillance of every box during operating hours, with cameras filming the faces and license plates of anyone dropping off a ballot. Both motions failed on party-line votes.

Roe's proposed amendments would also have required county staff to stamp any mail ballot envelope deposited by a third party and file an incident report for each occurrence.

Moskowitz said an unstaffed drop box is not the same as an unmonitored or unsecured one. She argued the boxes remain protected even without a person standing beside each one.

In a statement to the Daily Local News on Friday, Sept. 18, Roe said his amendment would have offered more drop box hours than the adopted policy while keeping every location fully staffed. He called the characterization of his position as voter disenfranchisement absurd.

Michele DiCaprio, the new director of Chester County Voter Services who succeeded Karen Barsoum in June, publicly endorsed the changes at the Sept. 16 meeting.

The vote comes less than a year after an Election Day error omitted 75,076 voters from ballot books across all 73 Chester County municipalities. The county announced in February that human error caused the problem. The mistake forced roughly 12,600 people to cast provisional ballots, and not all of those votes were counted, according to WHYY. The board certified the 2025 results in a 2-1 vote on Dec. 5, 2025, with Roe voting against certification.

Under Pennsylvania law, voters may only drop off their own mail-in ballots. A disabled voter may designate an agent to deliver a ballot through the state or county.

Neighboring counties already offer broader 24-hour access. Delaware County has 30 drop boxes, nearly all available around the clock. Philadelphia's 30 outdoor boxes are all open 24 hours. Montgomery County operates more than 15, with all but one accessible around the clock.

No next Board of Elections meeting date was announced at the Sept. 16 session.