Two Luzerne County election bureau positions filled

Luzerne County has a new deputy election director and elections operator, county Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo announced Wednesday.

Sarah Knoell is filling the deputy election director position vacated when Eryn Harvey resigned in February to pursue other opportunities.

A graduate of Binghamton University in New York, Knoell has more than seven years of experience working for the Broome County Board of Elections in Binghamton. As operations assistant in that county, Knoell supervised more than 1,000 poll inspectors and providing extensive training on the Dominion voting machines, Tenex electronic poll books and customer service skills, Crocamo said.

Luzerne County also uses a voting system from Dominion.

Knoell will receive $42,000 annually, which is the same compensation that had been paid to Harvey.

Emily Cook was hired as elections operator — a new position county council agreed to fund in the 2022 budget to address increased work demands.

The operator will perform a broad range of administrative, technical and specialized duties to assist in elections, the job posting had said.

Cook started working for the county as an administrative assistant in the election bureau last September. She previously held customer service positions and was marketing director for the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre, Crocamo said.

Cook will receive $40,000 in the new position.

Michael Susek, who was hired as county election director in December, said the bureau is now nearly fully staffed.

In addition to the elections operator, council added an additional administrative assistant in the bureau. The two new positions bring the total office staff count to seven, Susek said.

Susek said the only remaining vacancies involve two of the five administrative assistant positions. He expects one will be filled next week and said interviews were underway Wednesday for the second vacancy.

Knoell’s years of experience will be an asset for the bureau, Susek said.