A Luzerne County voter primer for Tuesday’s primary election

A total of 176,031 Luzerne County Democrats and Republicans will have the opportunity to pick their party’s nominees in Tuesday’s primary election, according to final voter registration figures.

The county has 93,546 Democrats and 82,485 Republicans. Candidate nominations are left to them because Pennsylvania has closed primaries.

However, Independents and voters with other or no affiliation are permitted to vote on primary ballot questions in Pittston and Wright Township in Tuesday’s primary.

The four Pittston questions are related to proposed city home rule charter amendments, and the Wright Township question involves a requested real estate tax increase to purchase and maintain fire apparatus.

Mail ballots

The county issued approximately 22,900 ballots to county voters who requested them for the primary, said county Election Director Michael Susek.

Completed mail ballots must be physically in the county election bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

With time running out, voters who have not yet mailed their ballots are now advised to deposit their completed ballot in one of the county’s five drop boxes inside buildings.

The options:

• Sunday

Misericordia University (Passan Hall), 100 Lake St., Dallas, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

• Monday

Hazleton City Hall, 40 N. Church St., Hazleton, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Wright Township Volunteer Fire Dept., 477 S. Main Road, Mountain Top, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Pittston Memorial Library, 47 Broad St., Pittston, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Misericordia University (Passan Hall), 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Penn Place, 20 N Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

• Tuesday, Election Day

Penn Place, which is county-owned and houses the election bureau, is the only drop box location available on Election Day, and it will be accessible until 8 p.m.

Disabled voters can complete a form at votespa.com designating a third party to deliver the ballot on their behalf. Otherwise, voters must return only their own ballots under state law.

There are two other options.

Mail voters who did not return their ballots also can bring the ballot package that had been sent to them — the ballot and both envelopes — to their polling place on Election Day so it can be voided, allowing th0se voters to cast their ballot on the electronic ballot marking devices.

Voters who requested but never received a mail ballot can cast a paper provisional ballot at the polls.

Provisional ballots are marked by hand and reviewed last so the county can verify a mail ballot was not also received from that voter. The details are important for provisional ballots. They must be placed in a secrecy envelope, which is then inserted in an outer envelope. Three signatures — two from the voter and one from the judge of elections — are required on the outer envelope for the vote to count.

As a reminder, mail voters must first place their completed ballot inside the provided plain white secrecy envelope and refrain from writing anything on the outside of the secrecy envelope, especially names or identifying marks.

This secrecy envelope must then be inserted in the outer envelope that contains the voter’s name and a label with a bar code identifying that voter in the state’s database. Voters must sign and date the outer envelope.

Ballots won’t be counted if voters fail to enclose them in both envelopes or forget to sign and date the outer envelope.

In-person voting

Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and voters in line at 8 p.m. must be permitted to vote.

Voters can view a list of all polling places under the election bureau’s primary election link at luzernecounty.org, although it must be emphasized the Harveys Lake polling place has subsequently changed for Tuesday’s primary.

The usual polling place — the Harveys Lake Municipal Building — won’t be available due to a COVID-19 outbreak impacting a construction project. Instead, borough voters must cast their ballots about a mile away at Our Lady of Victory Church at 16 Second St.

The election bureau sent an alert to voters informing them of the change and will post a notice at the municipal building redirecting voters, Susek said.

The polling place will return to the borough building for the November general election.

At the polls, voters make selections on touchscreen machines and then receive a paper ballot printout to verify their choices. After reviewing this printout, voters must feed the paper into a tabulator. County officials emphasize voters should not leave the polling place with this paper because it must be entered into the tabulator to lock in their vote.

Those with questions or concerns about the ballot marking devices, printouts or tabulators — or anything else they encounter in the polling place — should alert the judge of elections before they cast their ballots so the judge can assess the situation and, if warranted, resolve it, officials say.

First-time voters should bring proper identification materials. A list of ID options is posted under the voter registration link at votespa.com.

Ballot races

To help voters prepare, the bureau has posted sample primary ballots through a link on its main page at luzernecounty.org.

In addition to state and federal races, Republicans and Democrats will each vote for state committee members — six on the Democratic side (three males, three females) and seven on the Republican (three males, three females and one either gender).

County Democrats also will select county committee members — one male and one female — in each of the 186 precincts. Only 62 county committee candidates filed paperwork to appear on the ballot, which means a lot of selections through write-in votes are expected, Susek has said.

New legislative boundary lines take effect in the primary.

As a result, voters in Butler Township District 5 are now split into the 8th and 9th Congressional Districts, the election bureau said.

A list of all county precincts along with their updated Congressional and General Assembly district assignments is posted under the 2022 reapportionment update section of the election bureau page on the county site.

Results

County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo said the goal is always to process all mail ballots by election night so those results can be included in the evening’s unofficial tally, but she stressed there is no guarantee.

A team of approximately 10 to 15 county workers will be sworn in to start unsealing mail envelopes and scanning the ballots, known as pre-canvassing, on Tuesday morning inside a third-floor courtroom at Penn Place.

By law, counties cannot start to record and publish the mail ballot results until the polls close at 8 p.m., officials said.

The pre-canvassing is open to party observers, but the public is not granted entry until 8 p.m.

As usual, results will be posted and updated at luzernecounty.org after the polls close.

The state’s electionreturns.pa.gov site will provide updated unofficial results in state races.

Voters may call 570-825-1715 or email elections@luzernecounty.org for assistance or to report any issues.