Watchilla

Watchilla

County officials scouting for spots amid virus concerns, rescheduled primary

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Now that Pennsylvania has delayed the 2020 primary election to June 2 because of the coronavirus, Luzerne County Election Director Shelby Watchilla must start figuring out which buildings may be available for voters to physically cast their ballots.

The coronavirus election extension legislation allows fewer voting locations, but it does not go as far as calling for only a few major regional hubs for a county the size of Luzerne, officials said.

Under the current pre-coronavirus structure, the county houses its 186 voting precincts in more than 150 buildings, with some cases of multiple precincts occupying separate spaces at the same sites.

These 150 current locations are primarily church halls, fire or ambulance stations/halls, schools, municipal buildings, community centers, libraries and residential housing facilities, according to a list posted on the county election page at www.luzernecounty.org.

Most of these buildings are now closed to the public to prevent the virus from spreading, and the uncertain direction of the pandemic makes it challenging to predict if the owners will be willing to host elections a little over two months from now.

Watchilla said she will be reaching out to all polling site owners to gauge whether they are open to the possibility of having elections as she prepares a new proposed plan.

She is in the process of researching state parameters to come up with a revamped plan blanketing the entire county. The bill says consolidation may not result in more than a 60% reduction of polling place locations, except for “necessitous circumstances” and as approved by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

State legislators approved the primary postponement last week, and Gov. Tom Wolf signed the package Friday.

“We expect that there will be significant consolidation of polling locations, and voters will be made aware of such changes prior to the primary,” Watchilla said.

Voters with new locations will receive new voter identification cards, even though the county is not required to provide them, she said.

Watchilla said the primary extension was warranted to avoid crowds and because some poll workers and building owners had already indicated they would not be participating in an April 28 primary amid the pandemic.

Mail in

Once again, Watchilla urged county voters to consider casting their primary election ballots by mail.

Voters no longer have to cite a reason to take advantage of absentee voting under a reform initiated before the pandemic.

“Since the COVID-19 outbreak hit, we have seen our mail-in ballot application requests increase exponentially,” Watchilla said. “The safest way to vote — I can’t stress it enough — is the mail-in ballot.”

Registered voters interested in the new mail-in option must apply for a ballot. Applications are available on the elections section of the county website. Those without computer access can request an application by calling 570-825-1715.

Applicants will start receiving their mail-in ballots when the ballots are printed.

The new state legislation also allows county election offices to start opening, scanning and tabulating absentee/mail-in ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day, instead of waiting until 8 p.m. However, results cannot be posted until after polls close.

State officials added this provision in response to concerns counties wouldn’t complete results until the day after the election or longer.

New machines

Training sessions on the county’s new paper-trail voting machines were halted amid the pandemic, Watchilla said.

“One of our top priorities will be to reschedule training as soon as safely possible, but we can’t have 50 people in a room undergoing training at this time,” Watchilla said.

The election office has received and tested its 750 ballot marking devices in addition to scanners and other equipment from Dominion Voting Systems Inc.

With the new election equipment, voters will make selections on computerized devices similar to the way they do now. But instead of touching a screen box to cast the ballot, voters will receive a paper printout to verify their selections before the paper is fed into a tabulator to be read and saved in compliance with a state mandate.

Watchilla has said she ordered special wipes that will safely sanitize the electronic voting screens without damaging the new equipment. Gloves and hand sanitizer also have been ordered for use by workers and voters.

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