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Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri should present a resolution to council with his recommended paper-trail voting system for approval or rejection, county Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo said in an opinion released Thursday.

Pedri told council in a follow-up email he concurs with the law office opinion and will submit a resolution to council at its Nov. 26 meeting naming his selected vendor.

A legal opinion was requested because Pedri deviated from this usual resolution presentation approach for the voting machines.

Instead, Pedri presented a brief memo late last month recommending a system from Dominion Voting Systems along with a report from a citizen/employee selection committee he assembled endorsing a different system from Election Systems and Software (ES&S). Hart InterCivic also submitted a proposal.

Pedri suggested council attend a vendor demonstration, interview the committee and review proposals at length before making a decision.

This divergence left council unsure how to proceed. Councilwoman Linda McClosky Houck said council should be voting yes or no on the manager’s recommendation — not choosing one on its own. Council Chairman Tim McGinley said he supported council performing its own screening of all options for major purchases.

Asked to review the conflicting approaches, Crocamo said the county home rule charter that took effect in January 2012 says the manager shall negotiate, award and sign all agreements, although those over a certain dollar amount must be approved by council.

The cost trigger to require council approval is $25,000 in a future year or $75,000 in two or more future years for which no budgets have been passed. A new voting system exceeds this thresshold.

Crocamo said the charter allows the manager to abdicate his/her contract negotiation and approval powers by delegating that authority to someone else.

Pedri had said he had no problem taking a stance but wanted to provide council with latitude and options in this situation because the machine selection is a “big decision” that ultimately rests with council.

However, he told council in his email Thursday he sees no need to delegate his contracting authority by allowing council to select the next system.

Noting the system selection is a major decision that will impact the next decade of elections, Pedri said he believes council has performed its own due diligence by reviewing vendor submissions and presentations and the outside committee report.

“Because of this open and transparent process that has incorporated public input, council now has the tools to make a fully informed decision,” Pedri wrote.

Pedri said the Nov. 26 discussion should include feedback collected by the administration from other counties using their new machines in the Nov. 5 general.

“As always, council will have the option of affirming or rejecting this resolution,” Pedri wrote.

Counties must pick a system by the end of the year and start using it by the April 2020 primary under a state mandate requiring paper ballots or receipts that can be checked by voters and kept in case tallies are questioned.

In response to Thursday’s communication, McClosky Houck said the opinion was the only one that would “make sense in upholding the principles of our home rule charter.”

Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri has recommended a paper-trail voting system from Dominion Voting Systems, shown here during a county courthouse expo in February.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_TTL022819VotingMachines_1-1.jpg.optimal.jpgLuzerne County Manager C. David Pedri has recommended a paper-trail voting system from Dominion Voting Systems, shown here during a county courthouse expo in February. File photo

By Jennifer Learn-Andes

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