Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo released an inquiry report Friday focusing on three Nov. 7 general election issues.
Retired county judge Joseph M. Augello completed the inquiry at Crocamo’s request, examining why 1,557 Wilkes-Barre voters receive the incorrect mail ballots, an unspecified number of voters had no required secrecy envelopes in their mail ballot packets and the names of two Wyoming Area School Board candidates did not appear on the ballot in one municipality across the county line.
Some background on each issue and a synopsis of Augello’s findings:
1,557 incorrect ballots
Wilkes-Barre voters in Wards 2 to 8 and 14 to 20 received the wrong ballots, resulting in the need to mail new ones containing the correct city races for these wards.
The county had said the problem occurred when data files specifying which ballots these voters were supposed to receive did not correctly synchronize when files were merged.
“This was caused by human error within the bureau in preparing the data files for ballot preparation,” Augello wrote.
While ballot printing is handled by an outside vendor, it is the bureau’s responsibility to provide the correct data to the printer, he said.
“This problem may have been prevented with a more thorough proofing process, one which includes not only a proofing of the ballot but also a proofing of the mail merge which matches the voter to the appropriate ballot,” Augello said.
He credited the bureau with promptly acting to resolve the matter and notify the public, but he described the remedial action as “incomplete.”
Of the 1,557 erroneous mail ballots, 17% were returned and not corrected by voters, he said.
” This could have been ameliorated by a more complete notice to the affected voters,” he wrote.
Voters were alerted by email, but not all voters provided emails in their mail ballot applications, he said. The email alert also was “vague and didn’t fully identify the problem,” he said.
A fact summary the bureau posted online was “excellent” but only accessed if impacted voters sought it out, he said.
“A better practice would have been to include an explanation in the updated mail-in ballot packets or an explanation sent separately and contemporaneously with the packets,” he wrote.
Missing secrecy envelopes
Approximately 25 voters detected the omission and made arrangements to pick up the blank secrecy envelopes or have one mailed to them. The county also instructed Claysburg, Pennsylvania-based NPC Inc. — the county vendor that prints the ballots, assembles the ballot packages and mails them — to issue a secrecy envelope to all voters who potentially did not receive a ballot along with instructions.
NPC has told the county it believed secrecy envelopes were missed because a machine operator placed the inserting equipment into a manual override while he attended to a nonconformity that was detected at the beginning of the inserting line.
“Because the machine was only in override mode for short periods, we do not believe the omitted secrecy envelope issue is widespread,” the company had said, adding the operator has been retrained to “not allow the machine to continue to operate in override mode.”
Augello interviewed NPC representatives and learned up to 1,300 mail ballot packages could have been impacted.
“Basically, the machine operator did not realize there were two problems on the inserting line. The operator failed to address the problem of the machinery’s failure to insert the secrecy envelope. The manner in which the machine assembles the packets makes it difficult to notice the absence of the secrecy envelope in the completed packets,” his report said.
Upon learning of the problem, the county alerted voters and worked with NPC to identify the 1,300 voters possibly impacted and mailed them a secrecy envelope with an accompanying instruction sheet.
Identifying the problem as an “operator error at NPC,” Augello recommended the bureau address this type of concern with future vendors, including their use of safeguards that could include technology that checks the accuracy of mail ballot packets through thickness and weight.
The agreement with NPC required random spot checking in batches of 2,000, but he recommended more frequent sampling in any future vendor agreements.
Wyoming Area School Board
Luzerne County’s election bureau did not notify Wyoming County’s election office that Nick DeAngelo should be removed from that county’s ballot because he withdrew and that Independent candidates Philip Campenni and Erica Gazda must be added to the ballot because they filed candidacy petitions after the primary, officials have said.
Wyoming County has one municipality — Exeter Township — in the Wyoming Area School District, and DeAngelo was the lone candidate on the ballot for the two-year board seat.
No corrective special election was held because the number of votes cast in the Wyoming County municipality would not have changed the outcome due to Campenni’s winning vote tally, officials said.
Augello said Election Director Eryn Harvey accepted responsibility for the failure. No remedial action was possible because the problem was discovered on Election Day, he said.
Going forward, the bureau will personally meet with other counties to ensure all candidates are correct in “split districts” that include municipalities outside Luzerne County, Harvey has said.
Other recommendations
Augello said the bureau management team has “limited experience and limited institutional knowledge.”
“While experience is the best teacher, you can learn from experience of others,” he wrote.
He advised requiring the management team to take all available and relevant training from outside sources, including meetings and conferences with other election directors to share common experiences.
Augello also recommended:
• Continuation of services with an election consultant.
Crocamo had retained Attorney Timothy E. Gates and his firm — Harrisburg-based Myers Brier and Kelly — to prepare standard election operating procedures and provide other legal consulting assistance.
The county administration brought in Gates because he has expertise in election law and is equipped to draft protocols that were long requested but never fully completed, Crocamo has said.
• More cross-training of management staff for continuity of operations when employees leave or are unavailable.
• Development of more structured ballot proofing protocol that includes multiple checks by multiple people.
• Creation of a task calendar tied to specific deadlines set by the state.
• Reaching out to workers and officials past and present who were involved in the 2020 presidential election to better prepare for the 2024 race because the current management team was not in place in 2020.
• Continuing prompt public disclosure of any future errors to maintain public trust and confidence.
• Issuance of mail ballots as early as possible so there is time for remedial action if any glitches are discovered.
Augello thanked bureau management for its cooperation during the review process.
“We acknowledge that they have a difficult job,” he wrote, noting it may be more challenging in a municipal election year like 2023 due to the large number of elected offices that must be filled.
“Mistakes are inevitable, but it is imperative that steps be taken to minimize their impact. While there are no indications of intentional misconduct here, mistakes were made,” Augello wrote.
In closing, he wrote:
“The cumulative impact of repeated mistakes erodes public trust and confidence in the election process and fosters the proliferation of conspiracy theories by disappointed candidates and their supporters. Hopefully, with more experience and training, both management and employees, working as a team, can restore trust to our election process.”
Augello, of Pittston, served as a judge for more than 47 years, first as a magisterial district judge and then in the county Court of Common Pleas. In October 2010, he transitioned to senior judge status, retiring in 2022.
In an email releasing the report, Crocamo said the findings and recommendations in the report “serve as a valuable resource.”
“It is imperative that the recommendations are seriously considered and implemented to prevent the recurrence of similar issues in future elections,” Crocamo wrote, thanking Augello for his “thorough and thoughtful analysis.”