Electronic poll book purchase can’t be rushed, manager says

Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo said the administration won’t be making a recommendation on new electronic poll books to the county’s five-citizen election board at its meeting Wednesday.

Crocamo said she has the final say, and an administration panel is not scheduled to interview both prospective poll book suppliers until Tuesday, which would not leave enough time for her own evaluation.

The devices are used for voter sign-in at polling places on Election Day.

”This is a very important, critical decision, and I’m not going to make a recommendation without a thorough review,” she said. “We need to put thought in our decision-making.”

While the administration remains hopeful new devices will be in place for the Nov. 7 general election, Crocamo said she won’t sacrifice essential steps just to make that happen.

If necessary, the county would use paper poll books for voter sign-in on Nov. 7, the election bureau has said.

Based on original scheduling estimates, the election board had listed a possible vote at its Wednesday meeting on whether to support or reject the administration’s electronic poll book recommendation. Council also must vote on the actual purchase because the expense was not budgeted and will require ongoing maintenance and support expenses in future years, officials said.

In addition to purchase approval, the county must factor in time to prepare a contract with the selected vendor, obtain the devices and train poll workers on how to set up and use them.

The county purchased the current electronic poll books for $325,000 in 2018 from Election Systems & Software to speed up voter processing and allow poll workers to instantly search and redirect voters who show up at the wrong polling place.

County officials said the current devices are outdated and cannot be used in the Nov. 7 general election due to battery problems and other issues that surfaced in the May 16 primary election.

Poll books from two companies — Election Systems & Software and Knowink — are under consideration. The county has 186 voting precincts and sought pricing for 220 poll books. The submitted prices were $431,290 from Election Systems & Software and $437,300 from Knowink.

Both demonstrated their equipment at a public open house earlier this month.

County Administrative Services Division Head Jennifer Pecora said she is serving on the interview panel along with Election Director Eryn Harvey, Acting Deputy Election Director Emily Cook, county Information Technology operations manager Andrew Mesaris, county poll worker training consultant Logan Buglio and two election board members — Chairwoman Denise Williams and Vice Chairman James Mangan.

At council’s request, the administration provided council with view-only access to the lengthy proposals submitted by both vendors in the courthouse, saying the documents cannot be disseminated because they contain confidential information from each company.

The administration also contacted references for each vendor and will be including summaries of that information in the final recommendation, Pecora told council during its Aug. 8 work session.

In addition to helping with voter check-in and directions for voters in the wrong polling place, the electronic poll books also streamline the process of crediting voters for casting ballots in the state’s voter database, the election bureau said. With paper poll books, election workers must individually scan each bar code next to the space where voters sign their name, but this information is collectively digitally uploaded when using electronic poll books.

Funding will be available for poll books through the upcoming second annual Pennsylvania Election Integrity Grant, officials said.