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Luzerne County’s Election Board had only two voting matters on its agenda Wednesday, but the meeting was nearly three hours due to a barrage of mixed public comment.
Republican activist Scott Presler, who has 1.7 million followers on the social media platform X, kicked off the non-agenda general public comment period by announcing he intends to file a lawsuit Thursday against the county, election board and election bureau over claims voters are being disenfranchised.
He cited a backlog of unprocessed voter registration applications and assertion that mail ballots are not being issued in a timely manner and promptly posted about his litigation as a “breaking” alert to his X followers.
County Manager Romilda Crocamo provided a status report during the meeting, saying there are 2,500 voter registration applications filed by Monday’s deadline that must be processed.
Crocamo said the requests awaiting review and approval are both paper and online applications and include new voter registrations and requests for political party and address changes.
She reiterated some of the requests are duplicates because the voters already are registered but did not opt out of the state’s automatic registration when they renewed their driver’s licenses.
Regarding mail ballots, Crocamo told the board the county has issued 51,000 ballots to date, and 17,000 completed ballots have been returned by voters.
While the number of outstanding mail ballot applications was unclear during the meeting, Crocamo said later that the bureau has processed all mail ballot requests submitted through Monday.
All remaining mail ballot requests should be processed through the close of business Thursday, Crocamo said.
Tuesday is the last day for voters to request a mail ballot for the Nov. 5 general election, including requests for “on-demand” ballots at the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Crocamo said.
Crocamo said temporary workers and staff from other county departments are assisting the bureau, which is working evenings and weekends.
In the first voting matter, the volunteer, five-citizen board approved the Nov. 5 election proclamation providing required public notice of the election in 186 county voting districts from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m., all candidates appearing on the ballot and each polling place.
The board also unanimously agreed to refer four ballots from the April primary to the county District Attorney’s Office due to questions related to the witness verification required when voters are unable to sign their ballot envelope due to a disability or illness.
During post-primary adjudication, four ballots were rejected because they had no signature or mark. Because the same person served as witness for all four nursing home residents, the board is asking the DA’s Office to ensure there are no issues.
Public comment
Approximately 30 citizens spoke during public comment on a range of topics.
One man thanked the board for preserving two mail ballot drop boxes, while others blasted the continued existence of boxes.
On the box critic side, a few were upset that they were forced to place their ballots in the box at Penn Place when they used the on-demand mail ballot voting option, with one stressing that on-demand ballots should not be counted in drop box usage statistics as future justification to keep drop boxes.
There were complaints about delays receiving mail ballots, while others said they had no problem and already returned theirs.
Lengthy waits for on-demand ballots angered some speakers.
Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams was both criticized and commended by speakers.
One woman asserted complaints are being overblown to create a sense of chaos leading up to the election, while others said they are proactively pointing out valid concerns in a county still distrusted due to past issues, such as a 2022 election paper shortage.
Several called for state legislators to revamp election-related laws.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.