Luzerne County Election Bureau gearing up for high voter turnout | Dallas Post

As in all presidential election years, Luzerne County’s election bureau is preparing for a high-turnout April 23 primary election.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo stressed that point during her annual “state of the county” address this week, saying that is “what we have to concentrate on right now.”

In the last presidential primary in June 2020, which occurred during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, ballots were cast by 64,308 voters.

Four years before that, in April 2016, a total 79,912 ballots were cast in the primary.

For comparison to a non-presidential year, 45,338 voters cast ballots in last year’s May primary.

A distinction must be made regarding the two most recent presidential primaries.

Only Democrats and Republicans participated in the 2020 primary, but all county voters were able to weigh in on proposed constitutional amendments in the 2016 primary. Similarly, all county voters in the upcoming primary will be able to decide whether the county should activate a government study commission and select seven members to serve on the panel if the question passes. As a result, the turnout may be higher on April 23. The county currently has 26,628 voters who are not Democrats or Republicans.

County Acting Election Director Emily Cook said Thursday the county will be signing up additional poll workers and “rovers” assigned to respond to polling place requests for assistance with equipment or other issues. An application to serve as a poll worker is posted under the election page at luzernecounty.org.

In addition to poll worker training sessions, a more in-depth guide for poll workers to troubleshoot problems is under development, Cook said.

A greater number of back-up ballot marking devices and tabulators will be readied at the county’s voting machine warehouse in case there are any malfunctions at polling places, Cook said.

Ballot-proofing is underway, and sample proofs should be publicly posted in coming days with a request for all candidates to review them and alert the bureau of any errors, Cook said.

Paper is in stock, and an additional 800,000 sheets have been ordered for the primary, which is more than enough based on the county’s total voter registration of 197,300, Cook said. Reassurance is needed due to the November 2022 general election paper shortage. Leftover paper will be properly stored for future elections.

Bureau staffers also have been working with the emergency services department, sheriff’s office and other departments to compile a response plan to “any type of possible scenario that could come about,” Cook said. As an example, she recalled the November general election evacuation of the Swoyersville Ward 2 polling place shortly before the polls closed due to concerns about a potential electrical fire. All voting was completed, and a county team responded to secure the election equipment.

The processing of mail ballots will move to a larger room in the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre for the primary because the bureau anticipates additional workers will be needed to assist, she said.

To date, 20,864 voters have submitted applications for mail ballots, she said.

Multiple county departments always were involved in assisting with elections, but Cook said there is an increased sense of cooperation.

“Historically it puts a strain on other departments when help is needed with elections, but we’ve had so many people willing to help and go above and beyond to make sure the election runs smoothly,” Cook said. “Nobody wants to see any department fail and have that negativity, so everybody’s been great helping us.”

While the voting equipment will be the same in the primary, new electronic poll books from Knowink will be used for voter sign-in.

These books instantly allow poll workers to search data for voters in the wrong polling place and streamline the process of crediting voters for casting ballots in the state’s voter database, officials have said.

Both the county election board and a panel set up by the county administration had recommended the Knowink system.

Cook said poll worker training has been scheduled on the new poll books.

Before council approved a maintenance contract for the Knowink system this week, county Controller Walter Griffith told council he extensively reviewed the options and contacted counties throughout the state for feedback on poll books. He said he concluded Knowink was the best choice for ease of use, cost and other factors.

State announcement

In another election update, state Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Thursday he has established the Pennsylvania Election Threats Task Force. Led by Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, the task force of federal, state, and local security, law enforcement and election administration partners is sharing information and coordinating plans to “mitigate threats to the election process, protect voters from intimidation and provide voters with accurate, trusted election information,” a release said.

The Shapiro Administration and Department of State also have recently increased in-person public interactions, produced handouts that provide critical nonpartisan information on voting and election security and created a fact-check webpage at vote.pa.gov, the release said.