Continuing a push against mail ballot drop boxes, Luzerne County Councilman Stephen J. Urban wants to prohibit the use of any county resources to deliver the boxes to any county location unless drop boxes are “explicitly written into” state election law.
A majority of the county’s volunteer citizen election board had voted on March to provide drop boxes inside five buildings in the May 17 primary election and going forward, based on a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that allows drop boxes at the discretion of each county.
The county’s law office has not yet publicly presented an opinion on the legality of Urban’s proposal.
Urban and several other council members have unsuccessfully urged the board to stop providing drop boxes during meetings that have prompted public comments both for and against continuing the option for voters.
Urban’s proposed delivery prohibition — which is up for discussion but not a vote Tuesday — would amend the county administrative code to say the county shall not “permit, utilize, fund or compensate any county employee, contractors, third party or any nonprofit groups to logistically move” any drop boxes for county primary, general or special elections.
The prohibition would automatically be repealed if the state passes legislation enacted by the governor “explicitly creating the legal usage of election drop boxes,” it said.
Discussion is scheduled at the end of Tuesday’s work session, which follows a 6 p.m. voting meeting at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.
Because Urban’s suggested code change is structured as an ordinance, it would have to be introduced at a subsequent meeting by at least four of 11 council members and then adopted by a council majority during a separate future meeting following a public hearing.
The proposal comes as the status of mail voting in general is still unknown due to a pending Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling.
Three Republican Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judges ruled in January that the constitution must be amended to allow mail voting without an excuse or reason to be supplied by voters. The state administration immediately appealed to the state Supreme Court, triggering an automatic stay that keeps the mail ballot provisions in effect pending the outcome of adjudication.
With voting along party lines, the county election board’s three Democrats — Denise Williams, Audrey Serniak and Danny Schramm — authorized drop boxes inside five buildings in the May primary election and going forward.
Republican board members Alyssa Fusaro and Patrick Castellani voted against the drop boxes at that time, and Castellani promptly resigned over the issue. He said he was not arguing or disputing the PA Supreme Court ruling that allows drop boxes at the discretion of each county, but he expressed concerns about “inherent risks” associated with drop boxes.
Council later appointed Jim Mangan to fill Castellani’s vacant seat.
The five drop box locations are at the county-owned Penn Place Building in Wilkes-Barre, the Pittston Memorial Library in Pittston, Hazleton City Hall, the Wright Township Volunteer Fire Department in Mountain Top and Misericordia University in the Back Mountain.
In June, when 10 county council members were seated, all nine Republican council members supported Councilman Brian Thornton’s resolution urging the state to eliminate no-excuse mail ballot voting and mail ballot drop boxes.
Councilman Tim McGinley, the lone Democrat on council, voted against the resolution, noting about 30% of voters in the county’s most recent primary election chose to use the mail ballot voting option.
Thornton has said he supports the prior system of absentee voting that required voters to state a reason for casting a ballot by mail, such as an illness, travel or work.