Luzerne County election bureau proceeding as usual with mail ballots

With a special election looming, Luzerne County is particularly impacted by the timing of a state court challenge over the legality of mail ballot voting.

In addition to the statewide May 17 primary, the county must hold a special election April 5 for voters in the 116th Legislative District for the selection of a state representative to serve through this year now that Tarah Toohil is a county judge.

The legality of mail voting is up in the air because three Republican Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judges ruled Friday that the constitution must be amended to allow mail voting without an excuse or reason to be supplied by voters. The state administration appealed the same day to the state Supreme Court, which has a 5-2 Democratic majority. This appeal triggers an automatic stay that keeps the mail ballot provisions in effect pending the outcome of adjudication.

“Regardless of what the decision is, we’re going to be prepared for the special election and primary and general elections,” said County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo.

County Election Director Michael Susek said the election bureau must continue under the assumption mail ballots will be used so it doesn’t run into supply chain issues and miss deadlines if the mail ballot option is ultimately upheld.

“We can’t risk not having ballots and envelopes,” Susek said.

Susek said he will remain in constant communication with the county’s law office to assess changes.

“We’re proceeding as normal, but we are also acutely aware that things may change,” Susek said.

County Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams said she fully supports this approach.

“The bureau has to keep going forward,” Williams said.

While there’s no way of knowing how swiftly the matter will be fully adjudicated, Williams said the county has some breathing room because the special election ballots cannot be printed until the beginning of March regardless.

Under the state’s schedule for the special election, the state has until March 6, or about a month before the election, to present the certified list of 116th Legislative District candidates to the county for the special election.

The election bureau plans to get mail ballots in the hands of special election voters who request them the week of March 21, Susek had informed the election board.

There are 34 voting precincts and approximately 33,873 registered voters in the 116th District, which includes much of the Hazleton area into Shickshinny, although it’s unclear how many want to use mail ballots, the bureau said.

There’s no set number because voters must request mail ballots annually.

Countywide, approximately 54,000 county voters had checked a box to be placed on a permanent mailing list when they initially applied for a mail ballot. As required by state legislation, the county will send mail ballot applications to these voters by Feb. 7. Voters who return applications will automatically receive mail ballots for all elections this year.

Pennsylvania started permitting the option to vote by mail with no excuse or justification required in 2020 through bi-partisan legislation that passed the Republican-controlled state legislature in 2019. Some Republican legislators who had supported the legislation were part of the legal action challenging it, which led to the Commonwealth Court ruling.

The Pennsylvania Department of State said Friday it is notifying all county election boards that they should proceed with all election preparations as they were before the Commonwealth Court ruling and not change their procedures.

Voters on the annual mail ballot list should complete and return their application to affirm that they want their county to send them a mail ballot for all 2022 elections, the department said.

“The Department of State has a simple message today for Pennsylvania voters: Today’s ruling on the use of mail-in ballots has no immediate effect on mail-in voting. Go ahead and request your mail-in ballot for the May primary election,” its statement said.

More than 4.7 million mail ballots have been cast since the option was first made available by historic, bi-partisan legislation, it said.

“The Department stands by the use of this secure, convenient and accessible method of voting,” the statement said.

The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania also weighed in on the topic, saying state voters should be permitted to cast no-excuse mail ballots. The option is convenient, secure and used by voters from all parties in all regions of the state.

“If we want high quality elections, we need to ensure that we maintain a modernized system for voting, which includes individual freedom and convenience and the appropriate systems — which we now have. This is the wrong direction for Pennsylvania and smacks of partisanship,” it said, referring to Friday’s Commonwealth Court ruling.