Deadline today for primary election mail ballot applications and on-demand voting

Today is the last day for Luzerne County May 18 primary election voters to request a mail ballot or take advantage of an on-demand option of both requesting and receiving a ballot in the same visit to the election bureau.

To date, 22,830 county voters have requested mail ballots, county Deputy Election Director Eryn Harvey said Monday.

The breakdown: Democrats, 16,260; Republican, 5,462; and Independent, no affiliation or other, 1,108.

State legislators added the option to vote by mail with no excuse or justification required last year.

Applications are posted on the election page at luzernecounty.org.

The applications must be received by the election bureau at 5 p.m. today, which is why the election bureau will remain open until that time, Harvey said.

The bureau is located on the second floor of the county’s Penn Place building, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre.

The on-demand voting is available from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. today at the election bureau.

Requests for this option have been steady but did not reach the level of the November 2020 presidential general election, when the line extended outside the Penn Place building, Harvey said.

Returning ballots

Mail ballots must be in the bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

To avoid potential postal delays, the county has four ballot drop boxes for mail voters interested in hand-delivering their primary ballots.

“At this point, drop boxes are a very important option. The use of drop boxes is picking up,” said county Election Director Bob Morgan.

The locations: Hazleton City Hall, 40 N. Church St. (8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays); Nanticoke City Hall, 15 E. Ridge St. (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays); Pittston Memorial Library, 47 Broad St., Pittston (Monday, 1 to 5 p.m./Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m./Thursday, 1 to 7 p.m./Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m./Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.); and the Penn Place lobby (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays).

The box at Penn Place is the most popular, followed by the ones in Pittston, Nanticoke and Hazleton, Morgan said.

No problems or concerns have been reported with the boxes, he said.

Security cameras are fixed on each box, officials said. Teams of county sheriff deputies or election officials retrieve ballots from the boxes and transport them to the county election bureau.