Morgan

Morgan

Attempting to avoid past election problems, Luzerne County’s election bureau is meeting with some judges of elections seeking their input on what is and isn’t working.

These focus group sessions were among several directives recently issued by the five-citizen volunteer county Election Board.

Approximately 60 judges of elections — nearly one-third of the total 186 — have been asked to participate, including a mix of newer and veteran ones, said county Election Director Bob Morgan.

The sessions held in Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton started Tuesday and will wrap up Thursday. Morgan said he will compile a report on the findings for the county administration, his staff and the election board.

He chose the judges because they are in charge at polling places, although he eventually plans to seek feedback from poll workers in other positions. Focus groups will now be a standing practice after each election, which will allow judges of elections not in this round to participate in future sessions, he said.

“The judges of elections are in the field on election day and know how we can improve the process,” Morgan said as he headed to one of the Wednesday sessions. “It’s a chance for them to give us a sense of what they see.”

The bureau opens sessions asking the judges what did and didn’t go well in the May 18 primary, he said.

“That sparks the discussion,” said Morgan. “We want to encourage open discussion.”

An obvious and expected response has been a plea to never repeat an error that caused headers of Republican ballots on the electronic devices at polling places to be incorrectly labeled as Democratic ones, Morgan said.

Dominion Voting Systems Inc., which programs ballots onto the devices at the county’s request, had said human error at the company caused the data entry typographical mistake. The county administration also acknowledged it did not independently test the ballots after they were programmed into the machines and said proofing protocols are now in place.

Another focus group suggestion was streamlining the multiple forms judges of elections must fill out on election night, some required by law, Morgan said. He plans to review these forms to ensure all information is essential and that there is no unnecessary repetition.

Training enhancements also were discussed. Someone advocated more emphasis on basics for newer workers, such as showing the ideal configuration of voting equipment and other set-up needs at polling places, he said.

Judges also indicated a mass communication system would help notify poll workers of important issues and alerts on election day, which is another election board directive, Morgan said.

Officials said such a system could have been used during the ballot mislabeling discovery to simultaneously and rapidly communicate a clear update and reduce an onslaught of calls that once again prevented some from getting through to the bureau.

On the subject of training, Morgan said he was surprised to learn many experienced judges still attend sessions every year believing they may learn something new.

“I’m amazed at their dedication,” he said.

In Tuesday’s focus groups, the judges were overwhelmingly supportive of keeping electronic poll books used when voters sign in and did not want to return to paper books, Morgan said.

Morgan said the one-on-one is a “very useful process” because he and other bureau workers were swamped with responsibilities on election day and did not have an opportunity to “go out in the field to see how things are running up close.”

The election board approved the directives in June, with some mirroring earlier recommendations from council’s election inquiry committee.

These directives include a formal complaint processing procedure, an evaluation and review of poll worker training and development of written procedures and practices.

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