Luzerne County’s Election Bureau is set to send May 16 primary election ballots Wednesday to at least 19,536 voters requesting them to date.
For those in need of a refresher, mail voters receive instructions, a ballot, an unmarked white secrecy envelope and an outer envelope that contains the voter’s name and a label with a bar code that, when scanned, identifies that voter in the state’s database.
After filling out their ballot, voters must place it in the secrecy envelope, seal it and then put that envelope inside the one with the label/barcode to be returned to the county.
Some reminders to ensure mail ballots are counted:
• Don’t write anything on the outside of the secrecy envelope, especially names or identifying marks.
• Sign and date the outer envelope where indicated. The date refers to when the ballot was filled out, not a birth date.
• Fully shade in the ovals on the ballot and don’t mark choices with an X or slash.
• Be careful not to select more than the specified number of candidates.
• Only one ballot should be placed inside a secrecy or mailing envelope. The county cannot count multiple ballots in the same envelope, such as those for a couple, because there would be no way to determine which ballot is tied to the voter listed on the envelope with the bar code.
• Don’t staple or place stickers on the ballot or inner/outer envelopes, particularly over the bar code.
• To cast a write-in vote for a person whose name is not on the ballot, blacken the oval beside the applicable write-in line and write his/her name.
• Fill in the ovals with black or blue ink, although black is preferred.
Voters in Black Creek Township and Conyngham borough also should check both sides of their ballot because the number of candidates may have required continuation of the ballot on the back side, the bureau cautioned.
The deadline to apply for mail ballots is 5 p.m. May 9, although officials urge interested voters to act sooner, if possible, because the deadline only allows a week for the ballots to be mailed to voters and returned to the county.
Registered voters can obtain information on applying for mail ballots on the election bureau section at luzernecounty.org.
Ballot return
Mail ballots must be physically in the election bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and postmarks do not count.
In addition to regular mail, voters will have the option to deposit their mail ballots at one of four drop boxes that will be set up this week around the time the ballots are issued.
The boxes will be at Misericordia University in Dallas, the Wright Manor assisted living facility in Mountain Top, the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre and the county-owned Broad Street Exchange in downtown Hazleton.
Hours and other specifics about the drop boxes will be posted on the election section at luzernecounty.org in coming days.
Under Pennsylvania law, voters are only allowed to mail or hand-deliver their own ballot unless they are serving as a designated agent for someone with a disability. Disabled voters must fill out an official form authorizing someone to deliver their ballot for them. The form is available through this link. This form makes it clear that an individual can only serve as a designated agent for one voter unless the additional voter or voters reside in the same household, such as a disabled couple.
Under a surveillance protocols the election board approved last year, drop box sites must have video recordings for the entire period a box is in use on a USB-based backup device supplied by the election bureau so they can be stored by the county.
Correcting errors
Following a practice initiated in last November’s general election, the election bureau will attempt to contact mail ballot voters with outer envelope deficiencies before Election Day. This would involve outside envelopes missing voter signatures or handwritten dates or with dates that fall before the ballots are issued or after Election Day.
The bureau has early knowledge of which ballots have outer envelope defects because it has a ballot sorting machine purchased before the 2022 general election. Previously, teams of workers started reviewing the outer envelopes and weeding out those with defects on Election Day.
Following state guidance, the election bureau cancels ballots with outer envelope defects in the state system.
Voters receiving deficiency alerts can appear at the election bureau to obtain and submit a new ballot or fill out a paper provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day. Provisional ballots are reviewed last by the county’s bipartisan election board to verify nobody is voting twice.
Dozens of voters visited the election bureau before the November general election to obtain new ballots after they were alerted to outer envelope deficiencies by email or phone messages. The bureau is on the second floor at Penn Place, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre. The bureau will process requests for new ballots from voters receiving deficiency alerts weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., it said.
Inner envelope defects are not detected until Election Day because the ballots cannot be opened before then. These deficiencies include missing secrecy envelopes or secrecy envelopes containing voter-identifying marks.
Throughout Election Day, election board members — always one Democrat and one Republican together — will compile lists of voters who submitted ballots with missing secrecy envelopes. New arrivals of mail ballots with outer envelope defects also are added to the list.
These lists are then provided to party leaders so they can attempt to contact the voters and inform them of their option to cast a provisional ballot at the polls before 8 p.m.
This is known as “curing.”
Mail voters unable to return their ballots can bring the ballot package sent to them — the ballot and both envelopes — to their polling place so it can be surrendered to the judge of elections and voided, allowing them to cast a regular ballot. Voters who request but never receive a mail ballot can cast a provisional ballot at the polls.