Washington County Commissioners voted to approve the acceptance of a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for the purpose of helping with election integrity. The grant will total more than $733,000 and was funded by state legislature through Act 88 of 2022. Commissioner Diana Irey-Vaughn is pleased to be getting the funding and looks for it to help the county elections office greatly. Director of Elections Melanie Ostrander says that there are qualifications on how the money is to be used. She states that the monies are to be used to help counties obtain resources to count mail-in and absentee ballots beginning on Election Day. According to Ostrander there are 9 categories that monies from the grant may be used. Some of them are paying workers to help tabulate mail in and absentee ballots, purchase of equipment to help tabulate those ballots, pay for poll workers, and help with the payment of printing and postage for the office to comply with a national registration of voters and the printing of ballots. The grant is designed to be an ongoing funding source and the monies are to be used during the fiscal year that the grant is issued.