Police dogs working to sniff out potential threats mailed with ballots at Westmoreland courthouse

Police dogs are being used in the Westmoreland County Election Bureau and other courthouse offices to sniff out potential threats including drugs or explosives that could arrive among the thousands of mail-in ballots and other items arriving daily.

“There were reports across the nation of elected officials receiving fentanyl-laced mail,” said Westmoreland County Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey. “Although none happened in Pennsylvania, we thought about what if it happened here, so we decided to check our ballots since we have now received about 39,000 of them. We started checking the ballots every day.”

Dogs assigned to the county’s park police department over the last week have spent additional time in the election bureau and other Greensburg courthouse offices, where ballots are being stored to check for explosives or drugs that could be included with unopened mail.

Mail-in ballots cannot be opened until 7 a.m. on Election Day.

Chief Henry Fontana said nothing suspicious has been found among the sealed envelopes containing ballots or any of the other items that arrive through the mail and other deliveries. He described the patrols as routine.

“We scan everything that comes into the building. We want to make sure everything is safe, and we always check the mail constantly. We’re just doing our due diligence,” Fontana said.

Reports surfaced last November from Washington and four other states in what federal law enforcement officials said was a growing number of threats against election officials. Envelopes containing fentanyl were delivered to election offices, which in some cases caused evacuations and delays in counting ballots during the 2023 elections.

Fontana said his department’s two canines — Rico, who patrols for explosives, and Elliott, who joined the department last year to sniff out drugs — typically walk through the courthouse throughout the year.

Fontana said the upcoming election has created a heightened level of concern.

“This is how we do things,” he said, “and it is not unusual to see that we have dogs here.”