Griffith

Griffith

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The Luzerne County Election Board’s Wednesday night meeting has been rescheduled to Thursday because the election bureau did not publicly advertise that the meeting would be held virtually, officials said.

The county law office made the recommendation to delay because the bureau never ordered a legal advertisement announcing the meeting was online, said county Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo.

“We have to make sure the public knows how to participate,” Crocamo said.

The rescheduled meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, with instructions on attending posted under the authorities/boards/commissions online meeting section at luzernecounty.org.

Protest still on

County Councilman Walter Griffith said he will still hold a protest at 3 p.m. Wednesday in front of the county-owned Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre, which houses the election bureau. He had timed the gathering to precede Wednesday’s election board meeting. Penn Place is at the corner of Market Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Griffith helped organize the protest to urge the election board to exercise more authority over the election bureau in light of last week’s revelation that nine military mail-in Nov. 3 ballots had been prematurely unsealed and discarded. That matter is still under investigation.

On the issue of the rescheduled meeting, Griffith said he has pointed out other election board meetings were not properly advertised this year and described the latest example as “more incompetence regarding Sunshine Laws.”

Crocamo said her office will approve all election board legal notices and advertisements going forward to ensure they meet legal requirements, although the election bureau will remain responsible for the timely publishing of the notices.

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