Luzerne County’s new voting equipment not yet certified by state as required

Luzerne County’s new voting system supplier is still awaiting required state certification for its latest equipment leased by the county, which means the county must temporarily use the company’s past-certified version in the May 19 primary election, county Election Director Emily Cook said Wednesday.

Cook said the new vendor — Hart InterCivic — informed the county several days ago that the certification it had anticipated to be finalized this month was still pending. The county had agreed in September to lease the new scanners/tabulators and ballot marking devices, known as the company’s Vanguard model, for use starting in 2026.

The contingency plan in place — using Hart InterCivic’s already-certified Verity system — must be deployed so primary election preparations remain on schedule, Cook said.

Continued use of the previous equipment from Dominion Voting Systems is not an option because the maintenance and support contract expired at the end of 2025, and the county has already started “offloading” the Dominion equipment kept in the county’s voting warehouse, Cook said.

Cook said she looks forward to Hart InterCivic’s latest model, but the Verity system will meet the county’s immediate needs. She noted the Verity system is already successfully used by hundreds of jurisdictions throughout the country, including three Pennsylvania counties.

Cook added she would have recommended a switch to the Verity system if the Vanguard one had not been designed.

“Ultimately, the software is the same,” Cook said, describing the inner workings of both systems as “not exceptionally different.” The Vanguard model is “cleaner, a little smoother” and “more intuitive,” she said.

Election Board member Rick Morelli asked Cook if she had any concerns about the contingency plan, and Cook said she did not.

The Hart InterCivic equipment is set to be leased for $574,000 annually for five years, including equipment, software, maintenance, and support services. The election bureau had projected it will fully offset the lease cost with annual savings using the new system, in part through reduced expenses for equipment transport to polling places and staffing.

With the new system, voters will fill out selections on paper ballots and then feed them into Hart InterCivic scanners for tallying, reducing the equipment needed. Previously, voters made selections on computerized touchscreen ballot-marking devices, printed the ballot for review, and then fed it into a tabulator.

One Hart InterCivic electronic ballot marking device must still be set up at each of the 186 voting precincts to accommodate those with disabilities.

Discussions are underway with Hart InterCivic on accommodations to ensure the county does not incur additional expenses as a result of the certification delay, Cook said Wednesday.

For example, Cook said Hart InterCivic must provide full staff training twice — for both the system that will be used in the primary and again upon certification of the new one.

Cook said Hart InterCivic also will have to assume responsibility for May 19 primary election ballot design and programming — a task she has promised to perform in-house when the system pending certification is in place.

In response to board questioning, Cook said she has limited information on why the certification has not yet been approved and added that a delay was always a “remote possibility.”

The Pennsylvania Department of State said via email Wednesday evening that Hart contacted the Department of State in August 2025 seeking certification.

”We are reviewing reports from the contracted examiners to determine whether it meets all requirements specified in the Election Code,” a department spokesperson said.”

The department does not have an expected completion date.

Any voting system selected by a county must be certified by both the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Pennsylvania secretary of state. The EAC and the Pennsylvania Department of State evaluate voting systems under current federal and state standards.

The county’s 2025 solicitation for voting system proposals said the equipment must be certified by the state on or after Jan. 1, 2026, or be in the process of achieving such certification at the time proposals were due in February.

This solicitation also referenced the necessary EAC certification, and Cook said that requirement has been met.

Last year’s expiration of the Dominion support contract had prompted the county election bureau to explore other options. After a public search, the bureau recommended leasing the Hart system largely due to its “user-friendly interface,” efficiency, and “robust security features.”

Drop box

At the county Election Board’s direction, the county has been providing mail ballot drop boxes inside two county-owned buildings — the Broad Street Business Exchange Building in Hazleton and the Penn Place Building in Wilkes-Barre.

But Cook alerted the county Election Board Wednesday that the Hazleton building is slated for private ownership because County Council unanimously voted earlier this month to sell that property to YMSF Family Partnership LP for $2.42 million.

The county administration is working on a plan to finalize the sale and ownership transfer.

Cook said the board must decide if it wants to seek YMSF approval to continue housing the box there or seek another location. A decision must be reached by next month to prepare, she said.

Board members asked Cook to reach out to YMSF about keeping the box there.

The Broad Street Business Exchange has served as a drop box location since 2023.

There was no southern county box in the November 2022 general election because the previous location, Hazleton City Hall, was not available due to issues over the location of the box inside the building at that time.

Drop boxes must be under video surveillance and anchored to the floor or a wall to prevent their unauthorized removal as specified in Election Board protocol.

Regarding the drop box that has been set up at Penn Place, the county is scheduled to meet with vendor representatives next week to conclusively determine why photographs were not captured as promised for the November general election, officials said.

The bureau was unable to retrieve photographs of voters who submitted mail ballots in the box for a post-election review. Runbeck Election Services sold the box to the county for $12,000 as part of a pilot program implemented for last year’s May primary election. County Manager Romilda Crocamo has 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.

Cook told the board that Runbeck representatives believe there was an issue with an internal component that prevented the primary and backup storage of recorded photographs. The company indicated that issue has been addressed in a non-pilot model of its drop box.

A standard mailbox-style box has been used at the Hazleton property and also in the Penn Place lobby before the Runbeck box was purchased.

Campaign finance

In other business on Wednesday, Cook said a new online campaign finance posting program should be operational by the end of this month, 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.

Going forward, candidates and committees will receive instructions on registering in the new system and electronically filing their reports, Cook said.