Luzerne County Election Board member Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt, seated at left, holds a provisional ballot Monday during a discussion about whether it should be counted. Seated at right is county assistant solicitor Paula Raddick. Standing, from left, are: Democratic party attorneys Nicole Thompson Lermitte and Gerard Gaughan, county Republican Party Chairman Justin Behrens, election board Vice Chairman Peter Ouellette, county assistant solicitor Michael Butera and veteran election watchdog Bob Caruso.
                                 Jennifer Learn-Andes | Times Leader

Luzerne County Election Board member Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt, seated at left, holds a provisional ballot Monday during a discussion about whether it should be counted. Seated at right is county assistant solicitor Paula Raddick. Standing, from left, are: Democratic party attorneys Nicole Thompson Lermitte and Gerard Gaughan, county Republican Party Chairman Justin Behrens, election board Vice Chairman Peter Ouellette, county assistant solicitor Michael Butera and veteran election watchdog Bob Caruso.

Jennifer Learn-Andes | Times Leader

After nine hours of bi-partisan review Monday, Luzerne County’s Election Board accepted 1,490 more ballots that had been in the county’s hands before 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3.

The board performed its still-ongoing review in public at the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

Of those added so far, approximately 674 were mail ballots that had been flagged for anomalies, while 814 were provisional ballots submitted at polling places.

The latest accepted votes were added to last week’s county tally of 149,958 general election votes, bringing the total ballots cast to 151,448 and the turnout to 68.54%.

Updated unofficial election results are posted online at luzernecounty.org.

Attorneys and other representatives from both major political parties attended Monday’s board review as observers.

Flagged mail ballots were tackled first starting at 8 a.m. Monday.

For example, a few voters wrote down their birth date on the outer mailing envelope instead of the date they filled it out. Those ballots were accepted by the board, said county assistant solicitor Michael Butera.

Others had been set aside for board review because the scanner tabulators would not read them due to tears or extraneous writing.

At least 500 mail ballots were formally thrown out under a state court ruling because the voters did not place their ballots inside inner secrecy envelopes as required, officials said. Some also had to be tossed because the voters did not sign the outer envelope.

The board’s review of provisional ballots began around 1 p.m.

Provisional ballots are marked by hand at the polls and counted last because the board must verify these voters are properly registered and did not already submit a mail ballot that would nullify the provisional one.

Several provisional ballots were voided because the election database showed the county already had received mail ballots from these voters.

In total, 3,648 provisional ballots must be reviewed by the board.

While the board finished addressing most, if not all, of the flagged mail ballots, it still has an undetermined number of provisional ballots left to review. The board plans to reconvene at 8 a.m. Tuesday for another day of review and resume again Thursday morning.

Every ballot under review passed through the hands of each election board member Monday.

Overseas military ballots also must be counted. The county has received more than 450 of those to date, although military voters have until 5 p.m. Tuesday, or a week after the general election, to return their ballots under state law.

The county results do not factor in 255 mail ballots received in the three days following the Nov. 3 election. County officials are segregating those ballots and won’t add them to vote tallies until the U.S. Supreme Court decides if it will issue an opinion on whether they should be counted, officials said. The state Supreme Court had ruled the ballots could be counted.

Under the county’s home rule charter, the county election board is filled by four council-appointed citizens — two Republicans and two Democrats — and a fifth board member/chairperson from any political party selected by those four, which is currently Democrat Jeanette Tait.

The other board members are Republicans Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt and Keith Gould and Democrats Peter Ouellette and Audrey Serniak.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.