Public invited to Friday demonstration of Luzerne County’s voting equipment

Due to growing interest, Luzerne County has moved Friday’s public voting equipment testing demonstration to the county courthouse rotunda, county Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo announced Tuesday.

Crocamo said she and other county officials have received a number of inquiries from those interested in attending. Facing the possibility they will all appear, she determined the voting machine warehouse on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre was too small and would not allow for sufficient coronavirus social distancing.

The event starts at 3 p.m. at the courthouse on North River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Visitor parking is available at the rear of the courthouse, and masks are required inside the building.

The county added the demonstration as part of its pre-election “logic and accuracy” inspection and testing process underway this week, Crocamo said.

Attendees will be permitted to cast mock ballots and ask questions about the electronic ballot marking devices and scanners/tabulators, Crocamo said.

The county citizen Election Board and county election bureau are hosting the demonstration with Dominion Voting Systems Inc., which supplies the county’s voting system, she said.

With the Dominion system, voters make selections on electronic ballot marking devices, which generate a ballot printout that must be reviewed by voters and then fed into a scanner/tabulator for votes to be cast.

County officials approved the $3.6 million purchase of the Dominion system in December 2019 in response to a state mandate requiring a system that provides a paper trail — in this case the ballot printout — that can be checked by voters before they cast their ballots and kept by counties for auditing purposes.

The Dominion system was extensively tested by the state before its certification for use by counties and consists of standalone components that are not connected to the internet, officials have said. The ballot marking devices also alert voters when they attempt to pick too many candidates (overvoting) and let them know when they have not selected all allowable choices (undervoting) in case they want to choose more.

The county District Attorney’s Office is reviewing complaints from this year’s primary but cleared the Dominion equipment for use in the Nov. 2 general. County DA Sam Sanguedolce has said his office witnessed a full demonstration of all equipment performed by the election director.

“In reviewing complaints, we had no indication that the equipment itself was flawed,” Sanguedolce had said.