Luzerne County’s post-primary adjudication begins Friday

The Luzerne County Election Board’s public post-primary adjudication will begin Friday and have a different structure.

Adjudication determines which flagged mail and provisional ballots are accepted or rejected and tallies write-in votes.

Attempting to make the marathon adjudication sessions more efficient, the five-citizen board voted in March to activate an election staff canvassing board to handle the review and processing portion, adhering to past board practices. Canvassing boards are permitted by state law.

Election board members will still have the opportunity to seek further information and have final say on which ballots are counted, officials said.

Board member Rick Morelli had proposed the change, saying the volunteer election board has been spending weeks after every election performing work that should be completed by staff.

Creation of the canvassing board was unanimously approved in March by the election board, which also includes Chairwoman Christine Boyle, Vice Chairwoman Alyssa Fusaro, Daniel Schramm and Albert Schlosser. Fusaro had voted against a subsequent motion outlining the operation of the canvassing board, saying she believed further discussion was warranted on the specifics.

Three county election workers were appointed as the canvassing board members for the primary election: Election Director Emily Cook, Election Deputy Director Steve Hahn and Election Deputy Chief Clerk Amanda Latoski.

According to the agenda for Friday’s adjudication, the canvassing board and county law office will brief the board on their recommendations to accept or reject ballots in specific categories, such as those missing inner secrecy envelopes and outer envelope dates and signatures.

Paper provisional ballots cast at polling places also must be checked to verify voters were properly registered and did not already cast a mail ballot.

A count of flagged mail ballots and provisional ballots was not available Thursday. The results of those accepted will be added to the online results.

Because there has been no court ruling saying otherwise, the county must count primary election ballots missing handwritten dates on the outer envelope, county Assistant Solicitor Gene Molino said Thursday.

A federal court ruling by District Judge Susan Baxter, an appointee of President Donald Trump in his first term, determined the rejection of undated or wrongly dated ballots violated the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

An appeal is pending, but the decision stands at this time because a stay was not granted, Molino said.

As a precaution, the county election bureau had segregated these ballots — the number is unclear — in case the appeal court ruled otherwise by the election.

Voters are instructed to sign and date the outer envelope where indicated. The date refers to when the ballot was filled out, not a birth date.

Critics have argued the date is unnecessary because the election bureau time-stamps the ballots upon receipt and cannot count those that arrive after 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Friday’s adjudication starts at 9 a.m. in third-floor Courtroom A of the county’s Penn Place Building, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre.

County Democratic Chairman Thomas Shubilla said Audrey Serniak will serve as the party’s observer at the adjudication. County Republican Chairwoman LeeAnn McDermott said she assigned Frank Wojtash as the party’s observer.

Adjudication will continue next week as needed to process write-in votes and ballots held for processing because the voters selected more than the allowable number of candidates or made “ambiguous marks,” such as using lines instead of shading in the bubbles.

After this work is completed, the county must complete an audit and reconciliation report of ballot counts required before the board votes on certifying the election results.