Election certificate requirements discussed for Luzerne County Nov. 4 general election winners

Nov. 4 general election write-in winners must submit acceptance paperwork to Luzerne County’s Election Bureau by Monday if they are eligible for the elected office and interested in serving, county Election Director Emily Cook said this week.

Paperwork is necessary for write-in winners to receive an election certificate required for candidates to take the oath of office, she said.

The subject came up during Wednesday’s county Election Board meeting because a candidate in Freeland borough expressed concern that he had not yet received acceptance paperwork the county Election Bureau mailed to all write-in winners.

Cook said write-in winners can visit the Election Bureau to obtain a copy of the paperwork if it did not arrive. The bureau is in the county’s Penn Place Building at the corner of Market Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre.

Turnaround is tight because packets could not be prepared and mailed to write-in winners until the general election results were certified Nov. 24, which included a window for challenges and candidates wishing to receive credit for votes cast under various spellings, a process known as cumulation, Cook said.

There was a suggestion to email packets to winners to speed up the process. Cook said she will research options for future write-in notifications but does not believe documents independently printed out by candidates would comply with legal requirements. Email addresses also may be unavailable for many winners, she added.

Write-in winners unsure of the eligibility requirements for the office they won should contact their municipality, Cook said.

The election bureau must send notification to all write-in recipients with the most votes, but it is ultimately up to the applicable municipality or school board to ensure write-in winners meet eligibility requirements, Cook said.

Because voters sometimes randomly write in the names of people they know or have heard of as a joke, the winners may be ineligible or unwilling to serve, Cook said. Sometimes voters write in names of people who do not reside in the municipality as required for a local contest.

The only filtering of write-ins is performed during the board’s post-election adjudication, when the names of cartoon characters, celebrities, and famous people are screened out because they are not registered county voters.

Election certificates

For winning candidates whose names appeared on the Nov. 4 ballot, Cook has made it clear in past public statements that election certificates won’t be issued to those with overdue campaign finance reports and associated unpaid fines.

County officials had announced in June 2023 that they would be identifying and fining candidates and committees that did not file campaign finance reports required by law.

That warning was carried out after the 2023 general election, when the certified winner for a Dennison Township supervisor seat could not take office due to an outstanding campaign finance fine that prevented him from obtaining his election certificate. The two seated township supervisors appointed someone else.

On Wednesday, Election Board members discussed the possibility that several newly elected school board members could have taken the oath of office without receiving election certificates that were withheld due to outstanding campaign finance reports or unpaid fines.

Assistant Solicitor Gene Molino said the county Election Board and Election Bureau have no control over governing bodies that allow someone to be sworn in without a certificate.

“We only control if they have an election certificate,” Molino said.

Compliance with the election certificate requirement is up to the governing body and its legal counsel, officials said. A citizen’s legal filing or complaint could be necessary to trigger a challenge over the legality of an oath of office.

During public comment, County Controller Walter Griffith asked how the Election Bureau is attempting to collect outstanding fines, estimating the county is collectively owed approximately $22,000 based on his research.

Cook said Thursday she does not have a ready tally of the total owed. Letters were sent this week to all candidates and committees with outstanding fines, alerting them that they won’t receive election certificates unless they are paid, she said.

Fail-to-file lists are posted in the election campaign finance section at luzernecounty.org after each reporting cycle.

Eventually, notice of those with unpaid fines will be forwarded to the county District Attorney’s Office and the applicable magisterial district judge’s office, Cook said.

Cook said the election bureau is “doing everything in our power” to ensure fines are paid.