Luzerne County’s Election Board focused Wednesday on the lack of a residency notation on May 16 primary election ballots in some races.
The county learned last week from a citizen that ballots don’t contain the municipality of residence for candidates in the county council and district attorney’s races as required.
Because the discovery came too late to revise paper ballots used for voting by mail and at the polls, the bureau publicly posted a list of the candidates and their municipality of residence on the county website that also will be displayed at all polling places on Election Day.
On Wednesday, the board said residency notations also are required in two other races. The municipality must be listed in magisterial district judge races, and the county of residency is required for school board candidates in districts encompassing more than one county, officials said.
Election Director Eryn Harvey said the residency list posted online and at polling places will be updated to incorporate these additional races.
The election bureau also will run the full list of candidates and residency notations in a newspaper for two days and send emails Thursday explaining the issue to mail ballot voters in impacted areas if they had provided an email address to the bureau.
Harvey said the bureau considered mailing the residency information to mail ballot voters but decided it may be confusing because they already are receiving their ballots and, in some cases, have returned them. That mailing also would have cost $15,000, she said.
Four school districts fall in more than one county — Berwick Area, Hazleton Area, Lake-Lehman and Wyoming Area. According to the list compiled by the bureau, all school board candidates reside in Luzerne County with the exception of Berwick Area, which only has candidates from Columbia County on the ballot.
The residency information for magisterial district judge candidates in races with ballot competition, with all candidates cross-filing, according to information supplied by the bureau:
• District 11-1-05: Charles “Chaz” Balogh and Jim Haggerty, both of Kingston borough
• District 11-3-01: Matt Christopher, Nescopeck borough; Carol A. Davenport, Salem Township
• District 11-3-03: Daniel O’Donnell, Butler Township; Tony Martine, Lorine A. Ogurkis and Wister Yuhas — all of Conyngham borough
Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams initiated a discussion on ballot proofing procedures and suggested the bureau draft formal protocols before the next election, preferably with county law office involvement, to ensure all legal ballot requirements are clearly stated.
Williams also confirmed with the bureau that it had provided copies of its sample ballots to the Pennsylvania Department of State for review.
Election Deputy Director Beth Gilbert said the state had received the sample ballots and recommended a title change in one race, but it made no mention about the absence of residency notations.
Election Board Vice Chairman Jim Mangan said he is “very disappointed” the state did not flag the absence of residency notations.
Harvey said she is now aware of several counties not stating required residencies on their ballots.
The election board must ultimately approve the ballot, but Williams said board members never received written guidelines or checklists to follow — such as the residency notation requirement. If board proofing is a requirement in addition to the bureau’s review, Williams said the board would need to receive more information in a timely manner, including access to candidate filings that are housed in the bureau.
Williams noted she methodically went through the primary sample ballots before they were adopted based on the limited information she had and alerted the election bureau to seven or eight errors.
There are approximately 370 different ballot “styles,” largely because there are 186 voting precincts. Each must have Democratic and Republican ballots. In addition, some precincts may have more than one ballot because they fall within two different school district regions.
In other primary updates, a total 170,042 county voters are registered to cast ballots on May 16 — 88,109 Democrats and 81,933 Republicans, according to state statistics updated Monday, which was the primary registration deadline. The remaining 25,554 county voters not registered in the two major parties must wait until the November general because Pennsylvania has closed primaries, and there are no primary contests or ballot questions open to all voters.
Primary election mail ballots have been sent to 20,475 county voters who requested them to date — 15,330 Democrats and 5,137 Republicans, the election bureau said.
Tuesday is the last day to apply for mail ballots, although officials urge voters to act sooner if possible because that only leaves one week before the primary to receive and return the ballot.
Mail ballot drop box locations are posted in the election bureau’s 2023 primary section at luzernecounty.org.
Paper ballots that will be used at polling places are scheduled to arrive from the printer before the end of this week, the bureau said.