Early voting has begun for the 2024 general election in Montgomery County

Montgomery County voters can now request and return absentee ballots at the county’s main clerk’s office building: One Montgomery Plaza in Norristown.

After delayed ballot delivery during the April primary, Montgomery County is one of the first counties in Pennsylvania to print and mail ballots for the November general election.

Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat, cast his absentee ballot Tuesday, becoming the first in the county to do so in the election.

Makhija cast his vote a day after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court confirmed that Cornel West could not appear on the ballot as an independent candidate, allowing counties across the state to begin printing and delivering ballots to voters.

Commissioner Tom DiBello, a Republican, said the county is sending out its ballots early enough this cycle that he’s not concerned about sluggish delivery. “We’re in good shape, and ballots will be going out starting later this week,” he said. “They have plenty of time to get them back.”

The county will mail out about 115,000 ballots over the next week or two. Voters can still request an absentee ballot until Oct. 29. Starting Oct. 4, there will be eight satellite election offices and 18 ballot drop boxes throughout the county.

Former President Donald Trump sent to X on Tuesday that early voting has begun in Pennsylvania. While that’s true in Montgomery County, it’s not true statewide, as counties test ballots, print them, and mail them out.

Philadelphia likely won’t begin distributing ballots until next week, while Jim Allen, Delaware County’s elections director, said ballots there may not be available until around Oct. 1.

A Bucks County spokesman said ballots likely won’t be mailed until October. Meanwhile, a Chester County spokesman said ballots will be mailed there in early October as well.