22,758 Luzerne County voters set to receive primary mail ballots this week

The 22,758 Luzerne County voters who requested April 23 primary election mail ballots to date should start receiving them this week, said county Acting Election Director Emily Cook.

Cook said Friday the data was sent to the printer — Rochester, New York-based Phoenix Graphics Inc. She was awaiting proofs from the vendor before giving the final go-ahead to print and mail the ballots.

Phoenix Graphics must transport the ballots to the U.S. Postal Service distribution center in the Lehigh Valley so they will arrive sooner at residences here, officials have said.

Mailing this week will put the county ahead of schedule because April 9 is the statutory deadline to send the ballots to voters, Cook said. The county administration has been attempting to get them out sooner than required to give voters ample time to fill them out and still have the option to use regular mail to return them.

Ballots must be physically in the election bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and postmarks do not count.

The state deadline to apply for mail ballots is April 16, although officials always urge interested voters to request them sooner if possible because that date is only one week before the general election.

Based on requests to date, 11.5% of the county’s 197,818 registered voters have requested ballots. However, post-primary turnout tallies will provide more useful percentages on ballots cast by mail versus in-person at the polls.

Mail voters receive instructions, a ballot, an unmarked secrecy envelope and an outer envelope that contains the voter’s name and a label with a bar code that, when scanned, identifies that voter in the state’s database.

After filling out their ballot, voters must place it in the secrecy envelope, seal it and then put that envelope inside the one with the label/barcode to be returned to the county.

The state has redesigned mail ballot materials to reduce voter errors and confusion. These changes include more understandable instructions, highlighting of fields the voters must complete on the outer envelope and coloring to make it easier for voters to distinguish the outer return envelope and inner secrecy envelope.

A hole punch also will appear on the outer envelope. Mail ballots can’t be unsealed until Election Day, and the hole punch allows workers processing the ballots to instantly verify missing inner secrecy envelopes so they don’t have to take time unsealing those.

Drop boxes

The county’s mail ballot drop boxes are scheduled to be set up today, Cook said.

The election bureau has posted a list and available hours of the boxes on the election page at luzernecounty.org.

The schedule:

• Misericordia University, Passan Hall, 100 Lake St., Dallas — weekdays 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.; weekends 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

• Hazleton Exchange Building, 100 W. Broad St., Hazleton — weekdays 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

• Wright Manor (main lobby), 460 S. Main Road, Mountain Top — weekdays 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., weekends 7 a.m.-8 p.m.

• Penn Place (main lobby), 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre — weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

In addition, a countertop box is available in the election bureau on the second floor at Penn Place.

Under Pennsylvania law, voters are only allowed to mail or hand-deliver their own ballot unless they are serving as a designated agent for someone with a disability. Disabled voters must fill out an official form authorizing someone to deliver their ballot for them.

A copy of the designated agent form is posted at vote.pa.gov.

County Election Board members sought clarification last December on what voters should do with the designated agent form if they are using mail ballot drop boxes.

Then-election director Eryn Harvey said she checked with the Pennsylvania Department of State and was informed voters are supposed to wrap the form around the outside of the ballot packet if they are depositing it in a drop box.

The bureau retains any forms turned in so they can be accessed if needed, but there is no way to independently track how many disabled voters rely on designees because voters make that decision privately, Harvey said at the time.

Reminders

Some reminders to ensure mail ballots are counted:

• Don’t write anything on the outside of the secrecy envelope, especially names or identifying marks.

• Fully shade in the ovals on the ballot and don’t mark choices with an X or slash or by circling them.

• Be careful not to select more than the specified number of candidates.

• Only one ballot should be placed inside a secrecy or mailing envelope. The county cannot count multiple ballots in the same envelope, such as those for a couple, because there would be no way to determine which ballot is tied to the voter listed on the envelope with the bar code.

• Don’t staple or place stickers on the ballot or inner/outer envelopes, particularly over the bar code.

• To cast a write-in vote for a person whose name is not on the ballot, shade in the oval beside the applicable write-in line and write his/her name.

• Fill in the ovals with black or blue ink, although black is preferred.

• Sign and date the outer envelope where indicated. The date refers to when the ballot was filled out, not a birth date.

An accurate date is important because a federal appeals court panel recently upheld enforcement of the technical mandate.

If mistakes are made, there may be an opportunity for voters to remedy the situation.

Following state guidance, the election bureau will cancel ballots in the state tracking system if its ballot sorting machine detects missing voter signatures or handwritten date issues on outer envelopes or the absence of a required inner secrecy envelope.

While ballots can’t be unsealed until Election Day, the sorting machine uses weight to weed out those with missing inner secrecy envelopes.

When such fatal flaws are discovered leading up to the election, the bureau alerts impacted voters if they provided an email address on their mail ballot application, Cook has said.

Those receiving alerts of voided deficient ballots will be able to appear at the election bureau to submit a new ballot or fill out a paper provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day. Provisional ballots are reviewed last by the board to verify nobody is voting twice.

Voters will be able to check the status of their mail ballot — including whether it is canceled due to deficiencies — through the online tracker at pavoterservices.pa.gov, Cook said.

The county election board also will supply lists of voters with ballot defects to party leaders on Election Day so they can attempt to contact impacted voters and inform them of their option to cast a provisional ballot at the polls before 8 p.m. This is known as curing.

Study commission

Primary voters will choose seven citizens to serve on a county government study commission, but they will only be seated if a majority of county voters approve a referendum also on the ballot asking if they want to convene a commission.

If a commission is activated, the panel must examine the county’s current home rule structure that took effect in 2012 and decide if it wants to prepare and recommend changes.

The commission would be free to recommend alterations to the existing charter, an entirely new charter or a return to the prior state code system in which three elected commissioners and multiple row officers handled decisions that now rest with an 11-member council and appointed manager.

Voters would have to approve any recommended change for it to take effect.

All primary ballots will inform voters they can elect candidates to the commission, regardless of how they vote on the question of convening a commission. Put another way, they can vote on candidates, even if they reject formation of the commission.

The county election board had voted in January to include a more detailed explanation of the study commission referendum with the mail ballots. The Department of State approved the inclusion of this “plain language statement” with mail ballots. The statement also must be posted at polling places on Election Day.

Although Pennsylvania has closed primaries, the county’s 26,818 voters who are not Republican or Democrat will have an opportunity to vote on the study commission referendum and candidates. Ballots for these voters will only contain the study commission referendum and commission candidates.

Voters with questions about mail ballots, or any election matter, can contact the bureau at 570-825-1715 or by emailing elections@luzernecounty.org.