Luzerne County voting system switch and responsible contractor ordinance approved

Luzerne County will change voting systems in 2026 and enact a “responsible contractor ordinance,” county council decided Tuesday.

Council unanimously approved the election bureau’s recommendation to lease voting equipment from Hart InterCivic at $574,000 annually for five years, which includes equipment, software, maintenance and support services.

Instead of the current practice of making selections on computerized touchscreen ballot marking devices, voters will fill out choices on paper ballots starting next year and then feed them into the Hart InterCivic scanners to be tallied, which will reduce the equipment needed, the bureau said.

The election bureau estimates it will fully offset the Hart InterCivic lease cost with approximately $600,000 in annual savings using the new system, in part through reduced expenses for equipment transport to polling places and staffing. Ballot design and equipment testing also would be completed in-house instead of relying on outside contracting, the bureau said.

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

The responsible contractor ordinance would require prospective contractors to participate in apprenticeship training programs and meet other conditions to perform county government construction projects over $500,000.

A crowd of approximately 80 union trade workers gathered in the county courthouse rotunda before the meeting as a show of support for the ordinance.

Sixteen citizens weighed in during a required public hearing preceding the voting meeting — nine for and seven against.

Seven of 11 council members supported the ordinance, prompting a roar of applause in the rotunda and claps in the meeting room: Patty Krushnowski, LeeAnn McDermott, Jimmy Sabatino, Joanna Bryn Smith, Brittany Stephenson, Greg Wolovich and Chairman John Lombardo.

Several members said council could revisit the ordinance down the road if there are concerns.

Council members Harry Haas, Kevin Lescavage, Chris Perry and Vice Chairman Brian Thornton voted against the ordinance. They also unsuccessfully supported Haas’ proposal to remand the ordinance back to committee to get more input from stakeholders.

The adopted version was amended twice Tuesday as proposed by Lombardo.

The first amendment will automatically override the ordinance if no bids are received from contractors that meet the ordinance requirements. In such cases, the lowest qualified bidder would be selected, it said.

Lombardo said the amendment would prevent problems that have occurred in other government entities with such ordinances when there are no eligible bidders, such as the need to rebid a project multiple times or delay projects by requiring council to override the ordinance in each instance.

The second amendment increased the project cap from $250,000 to $500,000. Lombardo said the increase was a compromise because contractors opposing the ordinance have called for a $1 million threshold.

Thornton was highly critical of the ordinance, saying it would “without a doubt” lead to a tax increase.

Warren Faust, president of the Northeast PA Building Trades, disputed the cost increase claim during public comment and said the ordinance was modeled after one in Northampton County that was upheld following legal challenges.

Stephenson said after the meeting the ordinance is an “investment in our youth” that will be “life-changing.”