Tim Baumbach, of Dominion Voting Systems Inc., provided training to seated Luzerne County Election Board members last month as they started reviewing May 18 primary election ballots. The participating board members, from left: Richard Nardone, Denise Williams, Audrey Serniak and Kathryn Roth.
                                 File photo

Tim Baumbach, of Dominion Voting Systems Inc., provided training to seated Luzerne County Election Board members last month as they started reviewing May 18 primary election ballots. The participating board members, from left: Richard Nardone, Denise Williams, Audrey Serniak and Kathryn Roth.

File photo

Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

Luzerne County Election Board member Richard Nardone said he wouldn’t ditch the current electronic voting system as suggested by some in recent weeks.

Nardone, who has immersed himself in election matters since he joined the board three months ago, said he has closely examined and researched the equipment from Dominion Voting Systems Inc.

“We just have to do a little bit better making sure everything works right before it is deployed, and that’s the issue,” Nardone said during last week’s board meeting. “You don’t change cars because you have a flat tire. You fix the flat tire.”

Calls to oust Dominion came in the wake of the May 18 primary, when headers of Republican ballots on the electronic devices at polling places were incorrectly labeled as Democratic ones.

Dominion, which also is retained by the county to program ballots onto the devices, said human error at the company caused the data entry typographical mistake. The county administration also acknowledged it did not independently test the ballots after they were programmed into the machines, relying on the company to do that task.

At county council’s request, the county District Attorney’s Office is investigating the primary election.

Nardone said the Pennsylvania Department of State extensively tested Dominion’s system before certifying it for use in January 2019. He referred the public to votespa.com for a full explanation of that certification process.

Nardone questioned the logic of changing products, saying issues have come up with all other systems certified by the state.

Attempting to dispel a claim circulating online, Nardone — a Republican — said the Dominion components are standalone and not connected to the internet.

To those seeking a return to only paper ballots and hand-counting, Nardone advised thinking it through because he does not believe that would be feasible with approximately 203,000 registered voters.

Nardone said he doesn’t know how the county would “go back to paper” because he got googly-eyed after tallying several hundred of the 13,000 write-in votes cast in the May 18 primary.

Proper completion of paper ballots is another issue, he said.

“Many folks can’t get their pencils in the ovals so that the scanner can read them, and you need an army of Ben-Hur to count them,” he said, referring to the classic movie. “Human error is a lot worse than the machines.”

Similar view

Denise Williams, chair of the five-citizen volunteer board, also weighed in, saying Dominion’s scanners/tabulators calculate results “a lot faster” than manual processing.

Some already complain the results take too long, she said, prompting her to question the reaction if the scanners/tabulators were not used.

Even when voters had to use paper ballots at the polls due to the coronavirus pandemic in the 2020 primary, their ballots were still scanned into the Dominion equipment to be tabulated, said Williams, a Democrat.

The entire Dominion system was deployed in the November 2020 general and last month’s primary because voters at the polls marked their selections on the ballot marking devices, which are essentially large electronic tablets that generate a paper printout that voters must review and then scan into the tabulator for their ballot to be cast.

These electronic marking devices alert voters when they attempt to pick too many candidates (overvoting) and let them know when they have not selected all allowable choices (undervoting) in case they want to choose more, Williams said.

“The machines are there to help guide them through the process of voting,” Williams said. “There are a lot of pluses to having the voting machines.”

Williams believes poll workers are starting to get more comfortable with the Dominion equipment. The county previously used a system from Election Systems & Software, or ES&S, which also supplied the electronic poll books that are still used when voters sign in at the polls.

“They’re just getting to really know them, and people are saying, ‘Get rid of them,’” Williams said of the Dominion machines.

Promise to remedy

In response to the ballot header error, Dominion representatives had informed the board they will improve data entry proofing and work to address any other concerns that are raised. The company also said it won’t charge the county for programming in 2021 elections.

Going forward, the county administration also plans do its own independent test of the header and ballots after programming, before the machines are sealed for delivery to polling places.

Independent of the header mistake, a Dominion representative told the election board the company has been the target of a “disinformation campaign” since the November 2020 presidential general election.

Some council members also have called for a revisiting of the Dominion contract, but no alterations or actions have been publicly discussed or approved.

Councilman Walter Griffith, who pushed for the DA investigation of the election, told the election board last week he appreciates its feedback on continued use of the Dominion equipment.

A council majority had approved the $3.6 million purchase of the Dominion system in December 2019, as recommended by county Manager C. David Pedri. Counties had to comply with a state mandate requiring a system that provides a paper trail — in this case the ballot printout — that can be checked by voters before they cast their ballots and kept by counties for auditing purposes.

“Do we really want to throw $3.6 million in the garbage and start over?” Griffith told the election board, referring to the Dominion system. “I don’t think that’s good. I don’t think that’s good procedure.”

Griffith said the county has a “great (election) board” and asked the members to work with council on restoring voter confidence, even if it involves a request for additional funding or procedural changes that require council approval.

New directives

The election board — which also includes Republican Missy Thomas and Democrats Audrey Serniak and Kathryn Roth — approved a series of directives for the election bureau last week, including some that had been recommended by council’s election inquiry committee.

These board directives include a formal complaint processing procedure, user-friendly online posting of campaign finance reports and development of a mass-alert system to rapidly communicate updates to all poll workers on Election Day.

Poll workers also will be surveyed to help identify needed improvements in training and operations,

“I believe that implementing these directives is necessary, and doing so will help to improve the election process at the bureau, for the poll workers and for the public,” Williams said. “I have gained quite a new understanding of the process.”

Nardone, Roth and Thomas were all appointed to the board in March, while Williams joined the board as chairwoman in April.

Nardone said he spent 40 years in the private sector focused on process improvement, and he is determined to apply his expertise to county elections.

The election bureau has six employees stationed at Penn Place. But on Election Day, it expands to approximately 1,000 workers at 140 locations with all the polling places and poll workers factored in, he said.

The county also deploys 1,152 pieces of election equipment that must be checked, he said.

At the end of the day, more people and resources may be necessary, he said.

He and Williams said they believe the directives and other ongoing efforts will improve the Nov. 2 general election.

”It’s not going to be flawless, but we’re not going to have the kind of issues we’ve had the last three years,” Nardone said. “You just have to work at it, and we’re all committed to doing that.”

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