Dallas City News

A crowd attended Wednesday’s Luzerne County Election Board meeting to weigh in on the elimination of mail ballot drop boxes in the Nov. 5 general election and the speed in which voter registration applications are being processed.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo announced Wednesday the county won’t have any mail ballot drop boxes for the Nov. 5 general due to “the safety and security of our community in the current political climate.”

The county had been providing four drop boxes for mail ballot voters. Voters will have the option to deliver their ballots to the county election bureau on the second floor of the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

At least 21 citizens criticized the drop box elimination.

Past county councilwoman Elaine Curry said there should be more drop boxes for accessibility and described the elimination as “unconscionable.”

“It’s voter suppression, pure and simple,” she said.

A Back Mountain poll worker said elimination of the drop boxes will increase lines at polling places and put more stress on poll workers already putting in 17-hour days. He said his safety concern is for poll workers because those with gun permits are permitted to bring their guns into polling places.

Prior election board member Audrey Serniak said she is “very disappointed” in the decision, particularly elimination of the Hazleton drop box, and said state Election Integrity funding should be used to beef up drop box security if that is the concern.

Brianna Rybka, of Fairmount Township, spoke as voter services coordinator at the League of Women Voters Pennsylvania, saying the decision so close to an election will disenfranchise voters who are accustomed to drop boxes and unaware they won’t be available.

Salem Township resident Claudia Glennan said the cancellation of drop boxes 48 days “from the most important election since 1860 constitutes nothing less than voter suppression.”

Plains Township resident Anita Davis also characterized the decision as voter suppression but vowed, “We will vote no matter what.”

Dallas Township resident Hannah Butterwick said she uses a drop box because of health safety concerns and said she can’t rely on timely ballot delivery through the U.S. Postal Service, saying the decision was “shameful.”

Fairmount Township farmer Jay Kaminski said he doesn’t trust regular mail and uses drop boxes.

Many frequent drop box opponents were in the audience, but most spoke about concerns with the speed of voter registration processing and other issues.

Crocamo addressed the status of voter registration during her Wednesday night town hall meeting in Wyoming, which was held an hour before the election board meeting.

Crocamo said the bureau is up to date on entering data on paper registrations and is actively processing ones submitted electronically.

She said staff informed her that many of the voter registrations coming into the bureau are for voters already registered. These duplicates cannot be processed because voters can’t register twice, she said.

Some stacks of filings from voter registration drives also include mail ballot applications and party registration changes, she said.

As in the past, employees from other county departments have been assigned to the election bureau to answer phones, freeing up staff to process registrations and other duties, she said. Temporary workers also will be added as usual to supplement the bureau’s small staff, she said.

She also authorized overtime for election work.

“There’s apparently a push nationally, not just here, that election bureaus are being inundated with phone calls to distract them from work they do,” Crocamo said.

Up-to-date figures on outstanding voter registration numbers will be released on Monday as part of a weekly election tasks calendar.

The weekly report is meant to enhance transparency and keep citizens informed about specific election preparation duties and the bureau’s progress in completing them.

Crocamo said the final acceptance of voter registrations also requires outside government agencies to verify submitted data, such as social security numbers — a part of the registration outside the county’s control.

County Operational Services Division Head Jennifer Pecora said it sometimes takes a day or two — possibly longer due to the current volume statewide — for voter data verification to be completed.

Crocamo said rumors the bureau is behind in processing thousands of registrations are “not accurate.”

“Everyone will have their voter registration processed in time to vote,” Crocamo said. “I will do whatever needs to be done to get everything accomplished for not just this election, but every election.”

During the election board meeting back and forth, county Election Director Emily Cook said the bottom line is that all voter registration applications submitted before the Oct. 21 registration deadline will be processed in time for those voters to cast ballots Nov. 5.

Republican activist Scott Presler, who has 1.6 million followers on the social media platform X, said he was attending because the county ran out of paper in the November 2022 general election. He said he has a reliable source reporting the county has a backlog of thousands of voter registration and mail ballot applications to process.

A Fairview Township man said he appreciates the bureau’s work but has a voter registration application from Aug. 6 that has not yet been processed.

County Republican Party Chairman Gene Ziemba questioned why the county would not supply an estimate of the registration applications pending processing before Monday. He also said drop boxes are not secure.

Several citizens also questioned the recent addition of security screens set up in the election bureau so workers are not visible from the public counter.

County Assistant Solicitor Gene Molino said workers handle records containing social security numbers and other sensitive information.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.