Luzerne County preparing for mail-in voting

With tens of thousands of Luzerne County voters expected to vote by mail on Nov. 3, county Election Director Shelby Watchilla said Monday she is exploring options to help with preparation.

Her office is seeking proposals from outside entities to handle the mailing of ballots — a cumbersome task that was performed in-house for the June 2 primary, she said.

Using data on mail-in voters approved by the county, the chosen company would have to print the correct ballot, package it with the required labels and security envelope and mail it, Watchilla said.

The company must be certified and provide the county with access to a system that tracks the mailing status of each ballot request, she said.

Proposals from interested companies are due Aug. 27.

Watchilla stressed her office would proof the ballots, monitor the company’s work and continue handling the processing of all returned ballots.

Teams of workers that she describes as an “envelope labeling and stuffing brigade” had to be pulled together to handle the mailing for June.

“It would be a tremendous help,” she said of the outsourcing.

Another time-saver she is researching: an automated envelope opener.

The county did not pursue such a machine for the primary due to concerns it would rip and compromise the integrity of the ballot, but Watchilla said automated openers were safely and successfully used to mass-open mail-in ballots in some other counties.

Teams of county workers had to spend days opening outer envelopes, shuffling the sealed secrecy envelopes inside and then opening those to access mail-in ballots that had to be unfolded and smoothed so they didn’t cause a jam when batches were fed into scanner/tabulators.

The envelopes couldn’t be opened until 7 a.m. on Election Day under state law.

It’s still unclear if state officials will permit counties to open the envelopes sooner as requested by the county election board, Watchilla said. The board also urged the state to change deadlines for the application and return of mail-in ballots to allow more time for county election bureaus to process and fulfill those requests.

As it currently stands, voters have until Oct. 27 to apply for mail-in ballots, or one week before the election. Completed ballots must be physically returned to the county election bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and postmarks do not count.

Voters approved for mail-in voting should start receiving their ballots in mid to late September, Watchilla said. The ballot cannot be finalized until the Pennsylvania Department of State issues a final list of candidates, she said.

Approximately 40,300 county voters cast their ballots by mail on June 2 — an option that was encouraged in the coronavirus pandemic and available with no excuse or reason required for the first time due to state legislation that had passed last year.

About 36,400 county mail-in voters already checked a box on their primary applications indicating they want to receive a mail-in ballot again for the Nov. 3 general, and Watchilla said thousands more requests have arrived.

She noted some of the voters who checked the box have contacted the office to request a form seeking removal from that automatic mailing because they want to vote in person on the new electronic ballot marking devices. Voters who request mail-in ballots must use a provisional paper ballot if they appear at the polls — a security precaution to ensure only one ballot is counted per person.

Watchilla stressed the county is not sending mail-in ballot applications for the November general unless voters request them. Her office has received complaints from voters about applications sent by other groups with no county government affiliation, she said.

She reiterated that only one valid ballot can be issued to each voter, tracked through a unique barcode.

In other election-related matters, Watchilla said:

• The bureau is interested in holding a public demonstration of the new electronic voting machines at the courthouse in mid-September, with details to be finalized by the election board.

Few voters used the new machines from Dominion Voting Systems Inc. for the first time in the June 2 primary because they were reserved only for the disabled, with others casting paper ballots at a reduced number of polling locations. On Nov. 3, the plan is to return to most of the pre-pandemic polling places and use the new machines for all in-person voting.

• The county has advertised two vacancies in the bureau, which will be down to four full-time staffers until those positions are filled. Information is posted on the human resources section at www.luzernecounty.org.

A unionized administrative assistant position is posted at $27,300 annually, with applications due Aug. 31. Resumes are due Sept. 1 for a non-union deputy election director position that pays $40,000 to $44,000.

Deputy Director Mary Beth Steininger is leaving county employment for another position.