Luzerne County presents plan to spend state election integrity grant

Luzerne County’s Election Bureau has come up with a plan on how it wants to spend its new $1.038 million annual state Election Integrity Grant, which includes the purchase of electronic poll books and a new position.

State legislation created the grant program last year to help counties cover the rising costs of holding elections, with funding based on the number of registered voters within each county. County election offices receiving the grant must reject funding from private outside groups and agree to tally mail ballots without interruption after the polls close at 8 p.m. on election night.

Grant funding can support and improve security and address operational needs, including training and technical support.

The latest $1.038 million grant will cover the upcoming Nov. 7 general election and 2024 primary election.

Poll books

The bureau earmarked $435,000 in grant funding to purchase new electronic poll books that would be fully implemented for the 2024 primary election.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo has not yet reached a final decision on which new poll book system will be recommended to council for purchase approval.

Both the county election board and a panel set up by the county administration had recommended a system from Knowink. Election Systems & Software was the other vendor under consideration.

The county’s prior electronic poll books, purchased for $325,000 in 2018 from Election Systems & Software, are outdated and cannot be used again due to battery problems and other issues that surfaced in the May 2023 primary election, officials have said.

As part of a pilot program, the county will use new electronic poll books from Knowink at 30 polling places in the Nov. 7 general election, which will help determine if that system works well here.

Used for voter sign-in at polling places, the electronic poll books also instantly allow poll workers to search data for voters in the wrong polling place and streamline the process of crediting voters for casting ballots in the state’s voter database.

The 30 precincts in the pilot program will be a mix of those that have historically excelled at using new technology and those where implementing new equipment has sometimes been challenging, officials have said.

The remaining 156 precincts that are not part of the pilot program will use paper poll books in the general election. Paper poll books also will be on hand at precincts in the pilot program as a back-up, officials said.

The pilot program will cost $17,080 and be funded through the election integrity grant.

New position

The bureau wants to create a new elections poll worker trainer/coordinator position that would pay $35,000 annually.

Another $30,000 was budgeted from grant funding to cover the benefits.

According to a county description, this non-union worker would oversee the coordination of all poll workers and their training as well as logistics for all polling locations throughout the county. Duties would include making sure all 186 voting precincts have polling locations with up-to-date contracts and proper staffing before each election, it said.

The worker also would visit high schools throughout the county to recruit student poll workers.

This position already had been posted, and it’s unclear how many applications were received.

Consultant

A total $52,179.30 was earmarked to cover potential payments from July through December for Attorney Timothy E. Gates and his firm — Harrisburg-based Myers Brier and Kelly — to prepare standard election operating procedures and provide other legal consulting assistance.

The county administration brought in Gates because he has expertise in election law and is equipped to draft protocols that were long requested but never fully completed, Crocamo has said.

Crocamo recently told council Gates has been meeting with bureau staff weekly and will complete the operating procedures soon after the Nov. 7 election for distribution to council and the election board. She also noted Gates will be here on Election Day to provide assistance.

The agreement with Myers Brier and Kelly requires the firm to evaluate and make recommendations to the county on improving the programs, procedures and protocols for administering elections in the county under the Pennsylvania Election Code as well as all applicable federal election laws. The firm’s partners and counsel, which includes Gates as counsel, will bill at a reduced rate of $400 per hour, while the hourly fee will be $300 for associates and $150 for legal assistants, its contract said.

Crocamo has said the retention of Gates stemmed from her discussions with county District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce about his office’s investigation report focused on the November 2022 general election paper shortage. Both the DA and Crocamo concluded comprehensive standard procedures are needed, she said.

The DA’s report said the failure to procure sufficient quantities of the correct paper for voting machines was “not a deliberate act, but rather a catastrophic oversight.”

Crocamo said Sanguedolce provided her with the name and curriculum vitae of Gates as a proposed consultant because Gates had served as the Pennsylvania Department of State chief counsel and has a “vast amount of experience in campaign finance law and elections issues.”

Other expenses

A total $104,600 in grant funding was allocated to Johnson Controls for security upgrades that will be completed at the county’s voting machine warehouse in Wilkes-Barre.

Among the other planned grant expenses, according to county Election Director Eryn Harvey’s presentation at last week’s county election board meeting:

• $25,400 for 250,000 sheets of paper

• $208,000 for poll workers

• $86,627 to print mail ballots

• $1,818 for equipment to time-stamp election filings received

• $50,000 for workers assisting with ballot processing

The five-citizen election board unanimously voted in support of the grant plan and proposed 2024 election budget. Both will be presented to council at Monday night’s budget work session, which starts at 5 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.