Luzerne County Election Board members met at the county courthouse in Wilkes-Barre Monday to certify the Nov. 7 general election results. Board members, from left, are: James Mangan, Daniel Schramm, Denise Williams, Audrey Serniak and Alyssa Fusaro.
Jennifer Learn-Andes|Times Leader
In compliance with a court ruling, Luzerne County’s Election Board tallied 222 Nov. 7 general election mail ballots that had incorrect or missing dates on the outer envelope.
Following that added adjudication process Monday, the board unanimously voted to certify the general election results.
U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter in the Western District of Pennsylvania issued a ruling last week that mail ballots with missing or incorrect handwritten dates should be counted.
Some have argued dates on the mail ballot outer envelopes are immaterial because the mail ballots are issued during a window before each election, date-stamped when they arrive in the election bureau and not accepted if they are received after 8 p.m. on election night.
Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams said a total of 229 ballots with outer envelope date issues had been segregated before the court ruling. However, seven could not be counted by the board for various reasons, including a missing outer envelope signature and verification that provisional ballots already were accepted and tallied from several of the voters.
Provisional ballots are marked by hand at polling places on Election Day and must be matched against mail ballots to ensure no voters are permitted to cast two ballots, officials have said.
Once the board accepted the 222 ballots, the board had to process write-in votes on some of these ballots.
The election bureau then conducted a write-in, tie-breaking process in 16 municipal races, primarily for auditor posts, Williams said.
County Election Director Eryn Harvey said all write-in winners will receive letters informing them of requirements to accept or reject their seats.
Board members convened at 8:30 a.m. to complete adjudication of the ballots with date issues, and the process wrapped up around 1:30 p.m., Williams said.
The board’s certification vote meeting started at 3 p.m. and lasted only a few minutes, with no public or board comment.
Discrepancies in the election bureau’s reconciliation report had temporarily delayed the board’s certification following the May primary election. A final reconciliation is necessary to make sure the total number of ballots processed equals the voter count, and the board insisted on reviewing records until the cause was identified. Harvey found the judges of elections in two wards had incorrectly added mail ballot voters to their polling place voter count.
This time around, no issues surfaced in the reconciliation, Williams said.
Williams was not aware of any race winners changing as a result of the 222 newly accepted mail ballots. The ballots with date issues came from voters throughout the county, which means they weren’t concentrated in a specific area.
Alyssa Fusaro, James Mangan, Daniel Schramm and Audrey Serniak also serve on the board.
Updated election results were posted on the main page Monday at luzernecounty.org.
After the certification, Harvey thanked her staff, poll workers, county Manager Romilda Crocamo and everyone else “who worked tirelessly to make this election a smooth one.”
“I’m happy with the progress we are making, and I’m going to continue to work hard to make Luzerne County a model county for elections,” Harvey said.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
