Some Luzerne County mail ballots contain incorrect return address

Some Luzerne County mail voters have received outer return envelopes incorrectly addressed to the Mercer County election bureau, county Election Director Bob Morgan verified Tuesday.

The error was made by Ohio-based Election IQ LLC, the vendor that mails the ballots on the county’s behalf, Morgan said.

Election IQ was unable to pinpoint the exact number of impacted ballots, but Morgan said he believes it is a “small number” and is confident the lion’s share were correct.

He first received calls from voters reporting the error Monday.

He urges impacted residents to visit the election bureau on the second floor of the county’s Penn Place building in Wilkes-Barre to receive new outer envelopes. The building address: 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre.

The bureau will personally deliver new outer envelopes to voters unable to visit Penn Place, he said. Call 570-825-1715.

If voters deposited the incorrectly-addressed ballots in one of the county’s four drop boxes, there will be no issue because the county is aware of the error, he said.

For those who mailed the incorrect ballots through the U.S. Postal service, Mercer County’s election bureau has been contacted and asked to time-stamp the mailings and immediately send them to Luzerne County in rush overnight delivery, Morgan said.

Morgan said he was working to obtain a list of all voters potentially impacted so the bureau could personally reach out to them to alert them to the problem.

Rice Township resident John Whitonis said he and his wife both received the incorrect outer envelopes.

She deposited hers in a county drop box. He visited the bureau at Penn Place for guidance on how to proceed because he inadvertently threw out his blank inner secrecy envelope. The bureau removed the bar code and other information from his outer envelope and attached it to a new one, he said.

Whitonis said he appreciates the mail ballot option to avoid crowds he has encountered at his polling place. However, he was upset the error was not detected and said the mistake will increase public distrust.

He contacted the newspaper to ensure all mail voters check their outer envelopes. Whitonis said he does not want anyone to mail the ballots to Mercer County this close to the May 18 primary because they may not arrive in time to be sent back here and counted.

Tuesday was the last day for primary election voters to request a mail ballot.

As of Monday, 22,830 county voters had requested mail ballots.

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

Morgan said more than 7,000 ballots have been returned to the bureau to date, and all had the correct Luzerne County address on the outer envelope.

He noted Mercer County’s election bureau would automatically detect Luzerne County ballots because that the bar codes on the outer envelopes would not be recognized as valid there.

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

The ballot drop box 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).