Luzerne County has a new election director — Plains Township native Michael Susek, Acting County Manager Romilda Crocamo announced Thursday.
The 43-year-old Susek has 15 years of elections administration experience through positions in three Colorado counties, according to the release and online published reports.
He worked as an elections project lead and elections specialist in Larimer County, as assistant manager of elections in Arapahoe County and elections administrator/management analyst in the city and county of Broomfield.
In addition to managing employees, he has experience overseeing all aspects of elections, including the development of performance measurements and use of data and technology to improve procedures. He deployed the same voting system in Broomfield that is currently used in Luzerne County.
“I wish Mike the best in this very important role,” Crocamo said. ”Luzerne County is fortunate to have such an experienced and well-rounded individual for this position.”
A 1996 graduate and co-valedictorian of Coughlin High School, Susek graduated from Moravian College in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and philosophy, with honors in philosophy. He earned a master’s degree in philosophy from Colorado State University in 2004 and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2008. In graduate school, he completed papers on the Help America Vote Act and the Federal Election Campaign Act.
Through continuing education, Susek became a certified election official in Colorado and Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt and has taken several courses in elections administration through the Election Center at Auburn University.
Susek and his wife, the former Kristen Zurek, both grew up in Plains Township and have a 4-year-old son, Julian. He had moved to Colorado in 2001 for graduate school.
The couple decided to return home in 2020.
“He and his wife absolutely loved the mountain states but did not want to raise their son without the love and support of his extended family in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” the release said.
Susek is already familiar with Luzerne County election operations because he worked as a consultant for The Elections Group this fall to provide Nov. 2 general election support to the county.
His consulting assistance included work on poll worker training, post-election audits and the launching of a new mass communication tool to simultaneously send mass alerts to all poll workers, the administration has said.
Susek sat through much of the election board’s post-election adjudication proceedings, jotting down detailed notes of the issues it encountered with mail and provisional ballots.
The election bureau had been plagued with turnover since Marissa Crispell resigned as director in September 2019 following criticism over her participation in vendor-funded advisory board trips.
Her successor, Shelby Watchilla, left for another position in December 2020, after a year in the position. Bob Morgan, the next director, departed Oct. 8 after six months on the job, also to accept employment outside county government.
Crocamo selected the director with input from the five-citizen, volunteer election board.
The county received eight applications for the position, which was advertised at $64,500 annually — the compensation that had been paid to both Morgan and Watchilla.
Crocamo said Susek will receive $64,500.
Crocamo has repeatedly said the administration is extensively documenting areas the new director must address based on observations before, during and after the general election.
Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams said the entire board supports Susek’s hiring.
“I’m very happy with him taking on the directorship of the bureau,” Williams said.
Williams described his qualifications as “excellent.”
“I was able to work with him closely during the election and was very impressed with his knowledge of elections and input on election matters,” Williams said.
Eryn Harvey, who has been working as county deputy election director since March, also had applied for the position.