Straight-party instructions added again

Instructions for straight-party voting have been added back to Luzerne County’s electronic voting machine election ballots, despite opposition by minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban.

The county Election Board, comprised of the three county commissioners, had voted in August to eliminate the instructions, in part after Urban discussed complaints from voters that the wording was unnecessary and confusing.

Commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Greg Skrepenak voted Tuesday to add the following paragraph under the straight party ballot section:

“To vote a straight party ballot, select the party of your choice. You may vote for individual candidates in any contest.”

“It’s just clarification. You’re trying to assist voters any way you can,” Skrepenak said.

“The ballot speaks for itself. Our job in the county is to make sure the ballot is accurate. I don’t think there needs to be any instruction leading anybody to vote one way or another,” Urban said.

About half of Pennsylvania counties don’t use any straight-party instructions, county officials have said.

Election Bureau Director Leonard Piazza said he is fine with the additional wording because straight-party instructions were included in a ballot prepared by the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice as part of its national election ballot improvement program.

The old wording said: “You may vote a straight party ballot for the party of your choice by selecting the party of your choice below OR you may split your ballot by selecting the party of your choice below and voting for individual candidates in any other party."

Urban said straight-party voters may not realize how their selection impacts the county’s race for two vacant county Court of Common Pleas judge seats.

Voters who choose straight-Democratic are picking William Amesbury and Tina Polachek Gartley. Straight Republican ticket voters are choosing Amesbury and Richard Hughes.

That’s because Amesbury won both the Democratic and Republican nominations in the May primary.

Straight-party voters may change individual selections by touching a candidate’s name to deselect it and then touching another name to select it, Piazza said.

Urban said he also wants to make it clear that straight-party voting does not apply to judicial retention races, which require yes or no selections.

County Judges Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. and Thomas Burke Jr. are up for retention in addition to state Superior Court Judge Kate Ford Elliott and Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini.

Piazza said there’s no reason anyone would miss the four retention votes because they’re on a separate computer page, and voters must view that page to reach the review screen and cast their vote.

“It’s impossible to skip a page on the electronic voting machine,” Piazza said.

The final review screen also shows all the candidates selected and notes any races or questions in which voters have not made a selection, Piazza said.

“Voting on referendums and retentions is up on the electronic machines. It was easy to overlook referendums and retentions on the old lever machines because there was no review process to say, ‘Hey, you forgot about this,’ ” Piazza said.

Clear 26°

News

Written directions had been on electronic ballot. Two commissioners decided to restore the notice.

Place Quick Ads