Luzerne County voters will switch to hand-marked ballots in May 19 primary

Starting with the May 19 primary election, Luzerne County voters will mark their selections on paper ballots rather than touchscreen ballot-marking devices.

Voters will still be required to feed the hand-marked ballots into a tabulator to be cast, as they did with the ballot marking device printouts.

An electronic ballot-marking device will still be set up at each polling place for voters with disabilities.

The change to hand-marked paper ballots is part of the switch to new leased voting equipment from Hart InterCivic.

County Election Director Emily Cook detailed what voters should expect.

As in the past, voters will sign in at their polling place using electronic poll books.

Once their sign-in is processed, voters will be issued a paper ballot with a blue label on top for Democrats and a red one for Republicans. Color coding was added to provide clarity for voters, poll workers, and poll watchers, she said.

Voters will be directed to a table with a privacy screen on top to fill out their selections.

Pens will be provided for voters.

Some reminders:

• Fully shade in selection boxes, and don’t mark them with an X, a slash, or by circling.

• Don’t sign or make other marks on the ballot.

• Select only the specified number of candidates.

• Turn over the ballot to complete additional selections on the back.

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

The bureau advises voters to take time to review their selections and ensure they have voted in all desired contests.

Voters do not have to vote in every contest, and they can select fewer than the maximum number of candidates.

If voters need to change a selection after they’ve marked the ballot, they are instructed to ask a poll worker for a new ballot.

When a new ballot must be issued, the old one must be voided and retained by poll workers to ensure accurate ballot-auditing reports during post-election reconciliation. This is called the spoiling of a ballot.

Casting the ballot

Voters will receive a manila folder to keep their selections confidential when they carry their ballots from the table to the scanner.

Ballots can be inserted into the tabulator facing up or down. Voters should wait until the device shows a message confirming the ballot has been accepted, which usually takes a few seconds.

The tabulator will inform voters in a plain language message on the tabulator screen if they have selected too many candidates in any race, known as overvoting, or if they incorrectly scribbled on the ballot, known as an extraneous mark.

In either situation, voters will have the option to alert a poll worker to have their ballot spoiled so they can receive a new one and start the process over again.

The tabulators will also alert voters if they failed to select any candidates in a particular race. Voters who receive that warning can either submit their ballot or return it to a voting station to make selections.

Voters should summon a poll worker if they do not understand any messages on the tabulator screen.

Paper supply

The county had experimented with paper ballots in the 2023 primary but returned to ballot-marking devices for that year’s general election.

One issue that surfaced in the 2023 primary occurred in Hunlock Township, when the polling place ran out of paper ballots for a period, requiring voters to use the electronic ballot marking device that had been set up for disabled voters until a replenishment of paper arrived.

The election bureau had ordered enough paper ballots for all voters countywide in the unlikely event of a 100% turnout, but each polling place received a partial allotment based on its turnout in past primaries. The remaining ballots were kept in reserve at the bureau in Wilkes-Barre and delivered if polling places started running short.

Cook, who became the county’s election director in 2024, said delivery of additional ballots won’t be necessary on May 19 because each polling place will receive enough ballots for every registered voter up front.

Ballots will be kept in secure cages at each polling place — a new procedure, Cook said.

The polling place cages will also hold other election supplies, she said.

Paper supply remains a topic of public interest because the bureau did not order enough paper for the November 2022 general election, causing shortages at some polling places and prompting a countywide extension of voting hours to accommodate impacted voters.

Cook said mandatory poll worker training has covered the use of hand-marked ballots and the new Hart InterCivic system.

She has posted instructional material on both the hand-marked ballots and how to use the ballot marking devices on the election day voting section of the election bureau’s page at luzernecounty.org.

New voting equipment was pursued because the five-year maintenance and support contract with supplier Dominion Voting Systems expired at the end of 2025, officials had said.

The Hart InterCivic equipment will be leased at $574,000 annually for five years, which includes equipment, software, maintenance, and support services.

The election bureau has estimated it will fully offset the Hart InterCivic lease cost through reduced expenses, such as savings for equipment transport to polling places. With the hand-marked ballot plan, the county only needs one electronic ballot marking device at each of the 186 voting precincts to accommodate those with disabilities, compared to the past inventory of 720 devices.