Preparing for Luzerne County’s Tuesday primary election

Approximately 175,300 Luzerne County residents are eligible to vote in Tuesday’s primary election — 91,204 Republicans and 84,117 Democrats, according to the state’s latest voter registration statistics.

Pennsylvania has closed primaries, meaning only Republican and Democratic voters get to nominate which candidates advance to the general election. Because there are no referendums on Tuesday’s ballot, the remaining 30,920 county voters with no party or other party affiliations will have to sit it out until the November general election.

Turnout in mid-term primary elections has varied based largely on the number of competitive races on each ticket, political observers have said.

In the last gubernatorial primary election four years ago, county turnout was 42.88% for Republicans and 30.99% for Democrats based on each party’s total registration at that time.

The breakdown for that May 2022 primary: 35,519 of 82,835 registered Republicans and 28,944 of 93,412 registered Democrats cast ballots in the 2022 primary, archived county reports show.

Four years before that, in the May 2018 primary, county turnout was 23.74% on the Republican side and 15.5% on the Democratic.

In-person

Election Day polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

A list of all 186 county polling places is posted on the election bureau page at luzernecounty.org.

Three polling place locations have changed since the November general election:

• Plains Township Ward 3 voters will cast ballots at the St. Peter and Paul Parish’s Bernadine Hall, 13 Hudson St., instead of the Hilldale Itlo Club on Chamberlain Street due to construction.

• Swoyersville Ward 1 voters will switch from the Music Box Dinner Playhouse on Hughes Street to the Maltby Volunteer Fire Co., 253 Owen St., due to a performance at the Music Box.

• Swoyersville Ward 2 voters will switch from the borough building to Swoyersville American Legion, 259 Shoemaker St., due to continued closure of the municipal building stemming from a pest control issue. This change was announced Friday.

Voters unsure of their ward or district can obtain that information through the state’s registration database at pavoterservices.pa.gov.

After signing in on electronic poll books at polling places, 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 previously 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.

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 a name.

If voters make a mistake and 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 is 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 ballot spoiling.

The tabulator will also 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 have incorrectly scribbled on the ballot, called 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.

Prior county controller Walter Griffith said he will be serving as a poll watcher for several candidates on Election Day and asked the county for an explanation of its ballot spoiling policy.

County Assistant Solicitor Gene Molino told Griffith poll workers must write “spoiled” across both sides of the ballot, cross out the QR code and barcode, and place those ballots in a spoiled ballot envelope kept in secure storage.

Voters with any concerns at polling places should inform a poll worker on the spot so the judge can assess the situation and, if warranted, resolve it, officials said.

Voters may call 570-825-1715 or email [email protected] to report any issues.

County Election Director Emily Cook emphasized this point.

“If you identify an issue or anything concerning, contact the election office because we can’t address a concern when it’s posted to Facebook and not reported to us,” Cook said. “If you genuinely want to address a problem, you should bring it to our attention so we can fix it.”

Provisional ballots

Paper provisional ballots are cast at polling places when workers determine additional voter verification is needed. The county reviews provisional ballots last during post-election adjudication to ensure the voters are properly registered and did not cast a second ballot by mail.

The provisional ballot envelopes identify fields that must be filled out by voters and election workers.

Mail ballots

More than 21,000 primary election mail ballots were issued to voters requesting them.

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

There are two drop box locations:

• The Hazleton box in the Broad Street Business Exchange Building, 100 W. Broad St., will be available Monday only from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• The Wilkes-Barre box in the county’s Penn Place Building at 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave. is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday and will accept returns until 8 p.m. on Election Day.

A box is also set up inside the election bureau on the second floor of the Penn Place Building.

Mail ballot voters can check the status of their mail ballot on the state’s tracker at pavoterservices.pa.gov.

Voters who received alerts of mail ballot deficiencies can appear at the election bureau on Monday to submit a new ballot or fill out a provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day.

Mail voters who received but did not return their ballot can also bring the ballot package that was sent to them — the ballot and envelopes — to their polling place so it can be voided, allowing them to vote regularly at their polling place.

Approximately 40 workers will be sworn in and trained on Monday so they are prepared to perform the initial unsealing and processing of mail ballots — known as pre-canvassing — starting at 7 a.m. on Election Day in Penn Place, Cook said.

Results

County results will be posted and updated at luzernecounty.org after the polls close.

The state’s electionreturns.pa.gov site will provide the updated unofficial results for races that extend beyond the county.

Cook advised voters to monitor the state site for larger contests because candidates may unofficially win this county but not come out on top in multi-county legislative districts and statewide seats.

Sample Republican and Democratic ballots for all 186 county precincts are posted on the county election page at luzernecounty.org.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo urged registered voters to cast their ballots and said the county election bureau is ready.

“As you head to the polls, please be patient and respectful with our poll workers. They are your neighbors. They showed up early, and they will stay late — all in service to you and to the democratic process. Treat them accordingly,” Crocamo said.

She also recognized the “hard work that makes Election Day possible,” thanking both the election bureau staff and the county’s five-citizen, volunteer Election Board.

“Under the leadership of Election Board Chairwoman Christine Boyle, the board has brought a level of stability, professionalism, and purpose that frankly we haven’t seen in years,” Crocamo said. “That is not a small thing. It is, in fact, everything, because democracy only works when the machinery of elections is trustworthy.”