Luzerne County still awaiting final determination on missing mail ballot drop box photos

Luzerne County is still awaiting an outside vendor inspection to conclusively determine if photographs were captured as promised by a mail ballot drop box used in the Nov. 4 general election, county Election Director Emily Cook told the county Election Board Wednesday.

Cook disclosed last week that the county was unable to retrieve photographs of voters who submitted mail ballots in the box that had been stationed in the lobby of the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

The county had performed basic troubleshooting with no success, prompting Cook to request an in-person visit by representatives of Runbeck Election Services, which sold the box to the county for $12,000 as part of a pilot program implemented for the May 20 primary election.

The box is designed to capture photographs of both the person’s face at the box and each side of the inserted envelope, along with the date and time the images were taken.

Cook said she is hoping Runbeck will conduct an in-person inspection of the drop box before the board’s January meeting.

She discovered the missing images when she collected drop box data for a post-election review by the Election Board.

Following past protocol for bipartisan board spot-checks of drop boxes, Election Board Chairwoman Christine Boyle, a Democrat, and board Vice Chairwoman Alyssa Fusaro, a Republican, reviewed drop box surveillance footage.

As required by the board, the county provides video surveillance of the Penn Place lobby box and the two other standard mailbox-style boxes inside the county-owned Broad Street Business Exchange Building in downtown Hazleton and in the election bureau office on the second floor of Penn Place.

However, Boyle and Fusaro sent Cook an email last week requesting better positioning of the Penn Place lobby box, saying the current position does not provide an overhead vantage point to see if a voter may be depositing more than one ballot.

Due to the missing photographs and insufficient surveillance video of the Penn Place lobby box, Boyle and Fusaro said Wednesday they were only able to perform a review of the Hazleton and election bureau office boxes.

Boyle said Wednesday they reviewed five full days of footage for the election bureau box and found six people dropped off two ballots instead of one. There is no way of knowing if these voters had required designated agent forms to deliver the second ballot on behalf of a disabled voter because the county does not have someone stationed at each box during the duration they are accessible.

No issues were detected in the review of two days of surveillance for the Hazleton drop box, Boyle said.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo had said she will accommodate their Penn Place lobby surveillance camera repositioning request for future elections. Crocamo also said she will seek a full refund from Runbeck if the drop box is not providing the promised features, adding the county has no control over the inner workings of the equipment.

In other business Wednesday, Cook said a new online campaign finance posting program should be operational by the end of January, allowing the public to automatically review reports without having to submit a request for the information.

The county entered into a $23,000 contract with EasyVote Solutions to implement the database.

Wednesday was the last meeting for Fusaro and Board member Daniel Schramm, a Democrat.

Neither sought reappointment, and the council must select a Republican and a Democrat to fill those seats in 2026.

Fusaro said it was an honor to serve the public and had decided to volunteer her time for four years due to past election issues.

She said it was “truly a labor of love” and that she “took it seriously.”

Boyle thanked both for their work.

“It is a time-consuming and sometimes difficult process,” Boyle said. “Both of you have really served well.”