Luzerne County Election Board immersed in write-in tally

Luzerne County Election Board members on Thursday continued the monotonous task of reviewing and cataloging thousands of May 16 primary election write-in votes.

Working with election bureau representatives, the five volunteer board members had spent more than 10 hours solely on processing write-in votes by Thursday afternoon, with more hours to come.

The board wrapped up the review of write-in votes on mail ballots Thursday and will start tackling those on polling place ballots this morning, officials said.

The write-in review is targeted for completion Tuesday, if all goes as planned. A date has not been set to certify the election results.

The following citizens serve on the election board: Alyssa Fusaro, James Mangan, Daniel Schramm, Audrey Serniak and Denise Williams.

The county plans to publicly release one mass report on the write-in results when the process is completed, rather than issuing piecemeal updates.

Once the results are certified, candidates will have a five-day window to formally file court paperwork if they want to request credit for write-in votes cast under different spelling variations of their name — a process known as cumulation.

County Prothonotary/Clerk of Courts Manager Michelle Bednar said the prothonotary’s office has created a form for candidates to request cumulation.

The election board had decided in February 2022 to leave it up to the court to rule on cumulation requests, as specified under state law.

Election board members have discretion to make decisions on cumulation, but board members said they were put in a difficult situation interpreting whether variations should be accepted or rejected.

School board race

In other matters, the board decided Thursday it won’t be asking the court for a special election in Larksville borough’s Ward 3 due to a poll worker error that resulted in some voters receiving the incorrect ballot in the primary.

The borough’s Ward 3 is “split” because a section falls in the Wyoming Valley West School Board’s Region 3. Forty school board region 3 voters — 23 Democrats and 17 Republicans — were supposed to receive the ballot with the school board race but instead were handed the one without it.

This doesn’t impact the outcome on the Democratic side because Brian J. Dubaskas ran unopposed and received 372 votes, with only 1 write-in vote cast, according to the unofficial results.

However, there was no candidate on the Republican side because Dubaskas did not cross-file to appear on both party ballots like contenders in the other regions, the bureau said.

The election board learned Thursday that 19 write-in votes were cast for Dubaskas under variations of his name, which is enough to secure the nomination if he requests cumulation and more than any other write-in candidate could receive if all 17 missed Republicans wrote in someone else, officials said.

After extensive board discussion and consultation with both the county Democratic and Republican party chairs, the board voted 4-1 to proceed without seeking court action. Fusaro provided the lone no vote.