Luzerne County won’t have a fifth mail ballot drop box Nov. 7

Luzerne County won’t be setting up a fifth mail ballot drop box at the county-owned West Side Annex in Forty Fort for the Nov. 7 general election, officials said Wednesday.

The county election bureau also has launched a new “Student Poll Worker Program” for the upcoming general and released a list of polling places that will be part of a pilot program to test new electronic poll books the county may purchase.

Drop box

The addition of a fifth drop box was on Wednesday’s county Election Board meeting agenda because some board members were interested in accommodating voters impacted by the loss of a box at the Pittston Memorial Library.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo said before the meeting she won’t support a West Side Annex box because the site is only several miles from the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre, which has a drop box.

The county also would have to pay approximately $2,800 for an additional mailbox-style box and more than $1,000 to install a security camera aimed at the box, said Crocamo and county Election Director Eryn Harvey. Adding another collection site would put more stress on the sheriff’s department because a team of two deputies must regularly retrieve ballots deposited in each box, Crocamo said.

Drop box advocates have argued the window is too short to mail ballots through the U.S. Postal Service.

Oct. 24 is the statutory deadline for the county to send out requested mail ballots to voters, which leaves two weeks before the Nov. 7 general for voters to receive the ballots, fill them out and get them back. Mail ballots must be physically in the election bureau by 8 p.m. on election night, and postmarks do not count.

Crocamo said the county will send out mail ballots before the statutory deadline so voters who fill them out promptly will have the option of using regular mail to return them.

To date, 20,863 county voters have requested mail ballots for the general, or 10.66% of the county’s 195,627 registered voters, records show.

Continuing past practice, drop boxes will be set up at Misericordia University in Dallas, the Wright Manor assisted living facility in Mountain Top, Penn Place and the county-owned Broad Street Exchange in downtown Hazleton.

Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams said a security camera for the West Side Annex could be funded through the county’s state Election Integrity Grant. She also said she wants to hear from the sheriff’s office on whether retrieval of ballots from that additional box would be a burden because they previously had to collect the ones in Pittston.

In a related discussion, board Vice Chairman James Mangan proposed the board designate a bipartisan board team to review some drop box surveillance footage to determine if anything appears amiss. With fifth board member Daniel Schramm absent Wednesday and questions raised about the parameters, the matter will be discussed further at the board’s next meeting.

Board member Alyssa Fusaro agreed the surveillance video should be periodically monitored.

Board member Audrey Serniak said she is not opposed to reviewing footage but wants guidelines due to the massive volume of video captured while boxes have been in use.

Student program

While the county has encouraged student poll workers in the past, Harvey said the newly launched initiative is the first formal program.

It will introduce students to the democratic process, she said. State law allows high school students 17 and older in good academic standing with a grade point average of 2.5 or greater to serve as poll workers. School approval, parental consent and poll worker training are required. Participating students will receive up to $215.

“I couldn’t wait to register to vote when I was 18. I believe we need to instill an interest of civic responsibility in our youth,” said Harvey, adding information about the program was sent to all high schools in the county Wednesday.

Poll books

As announced during Tuesday’s council meeting, Harvey told the board the county will use new electronic poll books from Knowink at 30 polling places in the upcoming Nov. 7 general election.

Crocamo has not yet reached a final decision on which new poll book system will be recommended to council for purchase approval and said the pilot program with Knowink will provide a test to determine if its system works well here.

The administration is looking at pricing to recycle the poll books the county purchased in 2018, which are outdated and cannot be used again due to battery problems and other issues, Harvey said.

The 30 precincts in the pilot program will be a mix of those that have both excelled at and struggled with new technology. The remaining 156 precincts that are not part of the pilot program will use paper poll books for voter sign-in.

The pilot program will cost $17,080 and be funded through the Election Integrity Grant. Knowink will credit the county for half of the $17,080 if it ends up purchasing its system, Harvey said.

The voting precincts set to use the Knowink books on Nov. 7, according to Harvey: Avoca Ward 3; Bear Creek Township District 2; Bear Creek Village; Black Creek Township; Butler Township District 3; Courtdale; Dallas Township District 2; Dorrance Township; Exeter Township; Forty Fort Ward 1; Foster Township District 1; Hanover Township Ward 5; Harveys Lake; Hazleton Wards 1 and 7; Lake Township; Larksville Ward 3; Luzerne; Newport Township Ward 2; Penn Lake; Plains Township Ward 5; Plymouth Ward 3; Rice Township District 1; Ross Township; Shickshinny; Sugarloaf Township District 3; Wilkes-Barre Wards 15 and 17; Wright Township District 3; and Yatesville.