Election board member vows no repeat of discarded ballot incident

In a Monday night meeting, Luzerne County Election Board member Keith Gould said he was “outraged” over the county election bureau’s “egregious mishandling of military ballots.”

“Rest assured, this will not happen again under our watch,” Gould said during the board’s first meeting since federal investigators disclosed that nine overseas military mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 general election had been prematurely unsealed and discarded.

Gould said this is “not how the board expects the bureau to operate” and also criticized the county administration for failing to notify the five-member election board when the ballot problem was discovered.

He presented a series of new protocols that should “go a long way to give some confidence to the community,” with a board vote on the changes planned for the next meeting Oct. 14.

A temporary independent contractor was responsible for the discarded ballots and immediately removed from service when Election Bureau Director Shelby Watchilla discovered and reported problems with the ballots, county Manager C. David Pedri has said.

Investigators found no issues beyond the nine that had been discarded during the three-day period the temporary worker was employed — Sept. 14 to 16, Pedri has said. County officials have not identified the temporary worker.

A federal investigation is ongoing, and Pedri said training has increased for all workers, seasonal and full-time. The county is in the process of contacting the impacted voters and will be working with the state to “ensure that these ballots are counted,” he said.

Proposed changes

As part of Gould’s suggested measures, election board members would:

• Take weekly turns monitoring the bureau office, with the assigned board member participating in biweekly meetings with bureau staff.

• Review security procedures, make suggestions to the county as warranted and ensure they are followed.

• Review policies and procedures with all bureau workers.

• Schedule a board member to be present in the bureau as an “overseer and observer” during the election season.

• Work in two shifts during the post-election adjudication of ballots, invite community observers to attend and make sure a county law office representative is present at all times.

• Ask county council’s code review committee to draft changes making the board the “sole decision-maker in respect to all election-related matters,” with the county manager involved only at the board’s request.

As background, a majority of the 11-member council would have to approve committee-recommended code changes for them to take effect, and opinions differ on which aspects of election bureau oversight fall under the direction of the board and manager.

• Receive weekly reports from the bureau director about all election-related issues and sufficient notice of any training provided by state elections officials so board members may attend.

In addition, Gould said the bureau must be fully staffed at all times and that contractors should only be hired as “a last resort,” with the board notified of all new hires.

He further stated any “anomalies concerning the bureau” should be immediately reported to the board in addition to the division head and county manager.

Although the board won’t vote on Gould’s plan until later this month, following a county law office review, the board is free to implement some measures now. For example, board members already have authority to observe the bureau at any time, officials said.

Gould also reiterated the public is encouraged to observe all election board activities, including its post-election review of ballots.

“The board is tasked with providing free and fair elections, and we take this seriously,” Gould said. “We are an all-volunteer board and commit to whatever time it takes to provide the citizens with a free and fair election above reproach.”

Election Board member Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt also proposed a vote of no-confidence in the bureau for the discarded ballots during Monday’s meeting, but Gould provided the lone additional vote of support for that action. The other board seats are held by Peter Ouellette, Audrey Serniak and Jeanette Tait, who serves as chair.

County Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo announced at the start of the meeting that board members had been briefed on the federal investigation in an executive session and advised against discussing details about the probe beyond what Pedri already had released in two statements.

More questions

In the public meeting, Dombroski-Gebhardt asked why bonded sheriff department workers or other county employees cannot be temporarily assigned to the bureau to eliminate the need for outside temp agency assistance. Temporary workers have “no business being in the bureau and touching ballots,” she said.

County Administrative Services Division Head David Parsnik said temporary workers are spending most of their time processing mail-in ballot applications and are not touching ballots. While full-time county workers have been pulled from some other departments to assist, they cannot fill the entire manpower need because other offices are busy with their own work, he said. A greater number of workers from other county departments were available in the June 2 primary because many services had been scaled back due to coronavirus stay-at-home orders and other restrictions, he said.

Gould asked who supervises the bureau when Watchilla and deputy bureau director Dino Ninotti are out on other duties, such as training poll workers.

Parsnik said the full-time staff is experienced and would immediately contact the always-accessible director or deputy if additional expertise is needed in a situation.

Responding to questions about the protection of mail-in ballots that can’t be unsealed until Election Day, Parsnik said a security system has been installed on the doors of the storage vault that requires a card swipe to enter, with only certain people approved for entry. The storage area also has security video cameras, he said.

High mail-in volume

The county has now processed 60,964 applications for mail-in ballots in the general election, and the bureau expects ballots to be mailed later this week, Ninotti told the board.

In the June 2 primary, the county had processed more than 53,440 requests for mail-in ballots and ended up receiving 40,300 returned ballots. The option to vote by mail with no excuse or reason required was available for the first time in the primary due to bipartisan state legislation that passed last year.

For in-person voting, the plan is to return to all 144 pre-coronavirus pandemic polling places on Nov. 3, although the county election bureau is in the process of identifying replacements for approximately 20 sites that will be unavailable.

Parsnik said some polling places can’t be used because of the coronavirus or for other reasons. He expects all locations will be finalized by the end of this week.