Luzerne County’s post-election adjudication set to start Friday

While the lion’s share of unofficial general election results should be released Tuesday night, a lengthy process follows to add vote tallies from flagged mail ballots, paper provisional ballots cast at polling places and write-in selections.

The county’s five-citizen, volunteer Election Board is scheduled to start this public process — known as adjudication — from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday in the county’s Penn Place Building at the corner of Market Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre, said Board Chairwoman Denise Williams.

Penn Place will be open for the adjudication only on Friday because non-essential county government offices are closed for Veterans Day.

Due to all the review and decisionmaking that must be completed, Williams expects the adjudication to continue through the following week, possibly longer. Issues such as a recount request could extend the board’s review.

In the last general, the board did not certify the Nov. 8 general election until Nov. 30, primarily due to issues related to a paper shortage.

First phase

Adjudication starts with a review of all mail ballots with deficiencies, including those missing required outer envelope voter signatures and inner secrecy envelopes.

The board has formalized and expanded the entire adjudication process to make it more transparent and understandable.

After describing each mail ballot defect and the number of impacted ballots, the board asks the solicitor to discuss the relevant state law and make a recommendation. Board members then discuss the matter and accept comments from party representatives before voting on whether to accept or reject ballots.

At some point in the upcoming adjudication, the board also will address Wilkes-Barre mail ballots that have been segregated due to an error.

The county issued new mail ballots to 1,557 city voters in Wards 2 to 8 and 14 to 20 because their initial ballot contained the incorrect city council race for their ward. That problem occurred when data files specifying which ballots these voters were supposed to receive did not correctly synchronize when files were merged, officials said.

Election Board members must verify the correct second ballot was returned. Correct ballots in the proper order will be scanned into the tabulator and counted. If any voters return the incorrect ballot for their city council ward race, the board will count all selections except for the city council one, the election bureau said.

Provisional ballots cast at the polls also must be checked to verify the voters were registered and did not also vote with a mail ballot. Provisional ballots must be placed in a secrecy envelope and then inserted in an outer envelope. Three signatures — two from the voter and one from the judge of elections — are required on the outer envelope for the vote to count.

Results from ballots accepted in adjudication are periodically uploaded to the county’s online election database at luzernecounty.org so candidates will know the impact on their vote tallies.

After adjudicating issues with paper mail and provisional ballots, the board is expected to start focusing on the painstaking process of tallying write-in votes in races where the total number of write-ins could be high enough for someone to secure a seat.

Audit, reconciliation

The county also must audit 2% of the ballots cast to verify the voter selections were properly credited.

A final reconciliation also is necessary to make sure the total number of ballots processed matches the voter count.

The board stepped up its review of the reconciliation report following the May primary, even delaying certification until it verified why some reconciliation figures were off.

In one ward, for example, the board discovered a judge of elections incorrectly included mail voters in their totals of those signed in at polling places. Once the mail voters were deducted from the count, the numbers match the ballots scanned.

Williams and the other board members — Alyssa Fusaro, James Mangan, Daniel Schramm and Audrey Serniak — all spoke in support of the more thorough reconciliation process conducted in public.

With the addition of a formal reconciliation in the adjudication, Williams said the board has developed complete protocols that can be used after future elections.

“It’s very organized and transparent for the public. It keeps everything on track,” she said.