Luzerne County mail-in ballots: What you need to know

Luzerne County has mailed ballots to all 60,575 voters who requested them so far for the Nov. 3 general election, county deputy bureau director Dino Ninotti said Wednesday.

New requests will be processed daily by Ohio-based Election IQ LLC, which is handling printing and mailing of the county-approved ballots, Ninotti told the county Election Board in its virtual meeting.

Oct. 27 is the deadline for registered voters to request mail-in ballots.

Statewide, 2.66 million voters have applied to vote by mail so far, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said during a Wednesday media briefing.

Ballots have been sent to 97%, or nearly 2.6 million, Boockvar said. As of Wednesday, about 20% of recipients — 517,800 — already have returned their completed ballots to counties, she added.

A synopsis of some other updates presented by the state and county Wednesday:

• Ballot tracker

For mail-in voters, the state offers an online search tool showing the date a ballot was mailed to each voter and the date it has been received by the county.

However, Boockvar said the county ballot mailing date may be incorrect in the tracker due to the method some counties are using to update their information.

For example, the tracker is showing some county ballots were mailed Oct. 6, even though the county did not start sending them out until Oct. 9, said county Councilman Stephen J. Urban. County Election Director Shelby Watchilla said an earlier date appeared based on the county’s extraction of voter data for the mailing.

Urban said the state should correct the tracker mailing dates because it puts voters “on edge” wondering why they did not receive their ballots closer to the listed date. Boockvar said the state is training counties on how to “trigger” the mailing dates most accurately.

The tracker is posted at votespa.com.

• Permanent mail-in list

Some voters have been questioning why they received general election mail-in ballots because they did not request them after the primary, Boockvar said.

She reiterated that ballots are sent for both elections this year if voters checked a box on their application before the June 2 primary indicating they want to be placed on the permanent mailing list.

The number of permanent annual mail-in voters statewide is now 2.03 million, the state said.

Voters who want to verify whether they applied to be annual mail ballot voters can contact their county election office, Boockvar said.

• Casting a mail-in vote

In addition to mailing, voters can now drop off their ballots in a secure box in the first-floor lobby of the county’s Penn Place Building at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street in Wilkes-Barre on weekdays, Ninotti said.

Two sheriff deputies will be stationed by the drop box and jointly deliver the contents to a locked room inside the second-floor election bureau that is monitored by security cameras at all times, Ninotti said.

Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo told the election board sheriff deputies have been directed to immediately intervene and alert the election bureau if any individuals attempt to “dump” or deposit multiple ballots into the box. Voters must mail or drop off their own ballots unless they have made special accommodations due to a disability or emergency situation, officials said.

Closer to the election — a date has not been announced — voters will be able to bring their mail-in ballots to the counter at the Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton post offices, where the ballots will be segregated by postal workers and picked up daily by teams of county employees to avoid mailing delays.

• Change of plans

Voters who receive mail-in ballots but don’t send them in can still vote on the electronic ballot marking devices at their polling places on Election Day, but they should keep everything mailed to them if they think this is a possibility.

To vote on the machines, mail-in ballot recipients must present three things, according to Ninotti: their mail-in ballot, secrecy envelope and return mailing envelope.

If that happens, election day poll workers would then draw an X through the bar code and write “spoiled” across the ballot. The judge of elections would have to override a block in the electronic poll book, allowing the voter to cast a ballot on the machine, he said.

Mail-in voters who don’t present all three items or who maintain they never received their mail-in ballots would have to cast provisional ballots at the polls, he said.

Provisional ballots are reviewed last and allow the county to verify a voter did not already cast a ballot by mail, officials said.

• On-the-spot voting

In addition to voting in-person at the polls on Election Day, registered voters who have not requested mail-in ballots can visit the county election bureau to vote.

This “on demand” option should be available starting Thursday, Ninotti told the election board.

To cast a ballot this way, registered voters must submit a mail-in voting application at the bureau counter. If the request is approved, a ballot is provided on the spot that can be filled out and cast in the same visit.

Ninotti cautioned only three voters will be simultaneously permitted in the bureau to allow for social distancing.

Polling locations

The election board voted Wednesday to approve the bureau’s proposed roster of Nov. 3 polling locations. Most are the same sites used before the coronavirus pandemic, but some have changed.

The list is posted under the “2020 general election” link on the election bureau’s page at luzernecounty.org. However, this version will be updated to incorporate a subsequent location change impacting Hazleton Wards 1 and 2, Ninotti said.

During the meeting, several citizens raised complaints about board meeting and election-related information that is missing or difficult to find on the website. Election Board Vice Chairman Peter Ouellette said getting board information posted has been a struggle in his four years on the board.

Councilman Walter Griffith suggested the board report concerns to the county manager if they are not resolved by the administrative services division head.