Luzerne County may have a replacement ballot drop box location in the county’s southern half.
The county Election Board has scheduled a special meeting Wednesday night to discuss options and vote on a selection.
Officials say two sites are under consideration, although specifics were not released Monday because the election bureau was still verifying whether they meet requirements.
A mailbox-style drop box cannot be set up inside Hazleton City Hall as usual for the Nov. 8 general election because city officials want to move the box to a part of the building that is not under city video surveillance, the election board learned last week.
County Administrative Services Division Head Jennifer Pecora had said she and the election bureau would attempt to identify another possible drop box host before time runs out. The bureau is aiming to send out requested mail ballots by Oct. 14.
A special meeting is necessary because the board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is not until Oct. 17.
Wednesday’s special meeting is at 5 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, with instructions for remote attendance posted under council’s authorities/boards/commissions online meeting link at luzernecounty.org.
While the plans for a southern county box are still up in the air, the county will have drop boxes inside the county-owned Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre and the Pittston Memorial Library, the Wright Township Volunteer Fire Department and Misericordia University in the Back Mountain.
The absence of a box in the Hazleton area would be a concern due to the distance and plan to have boxes in the county’s center and all four directions, Williams has said.
Under a surveillance plan the board approved last week, drop box sites must provide video recordings for the entire period a drop box is in use on a USB-based backup device supplied by the election bureau so they can be stored by the county. Previously, the county requested copies of the recordings as needed for investigative purposes.
Machine testing
In another election update, mandatory public logic and accuracy testing of voting equipment started Monday in the county’s voter warehouse at 135 Water St. in Wilkes-Barre.
A county sheriff deputy manned the entrance and performed security screening of observers.
Workers from Dominion Voting Systems Inc. are conducting the testing, which will continue through this week and into next week, said Election Bureau Operations Manager Emily Cook.
The Dominion Voting representatives took an oath before the testing began, she said.
With the Dominion system, voters at the polls make selections on an electronic ballot marking device and then print out the ballot. After reviewing the printout and determining all selections are the ones they picked, voters must then feed their printout into the scanner/tabulator to cast their vote.
Monday’s testing started with a simulated test of every ballot version on the ballot marking devices, including a check to ensure all selections were properly lined up, or calibrated, on the touchscreens, Cook said.
The examination must cover all 708 ballot marking devices that will be deployed at the county’s 186 precincts on Nov. 8, Cook said. In addition, 30 spare devices will be tested so they are ready to go if needed on Election Day, she said.
Next, workers scan the printed test ballots into all tabulators to make sure the machines are correctly tallying results, she said.
“We have to go through every piece of equipment,” Cook said.