Some last-minute reminders may be helpful for the many Luzerne County voters who have not yet cast their Nov. 3 election ballots.
In total, 220,965 residents are registered to vote.
As of Monday evening, approximately 53,000 of the nearly 71,600 county voters who were issued mail ballots had completed and returned them.
Voting at the polls
The county’s 129 polling locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. Voters in line at 8 p.m. will be permitted to vote.
“The county is anticipating long lines, so please plan accordingly,” said a release issued Monday by county Manager C. David Pedri.
A list of polling locations is posted on the election page at luzernecounty.org along with a link for voters unsure of the precinct needed to identify their polling place.
Voters also may call 570-825-1715 or email elections@luzernecounty.org for questions about polling locations or any other election matters.
Personal protective equipment — masks, gloves and hand sanitizer — will be available at all polling places. Voters also will receive a take-home stylus that can be used on the poll books at sign-in and on the ballot marking devices.
Voters will be asked to wear masks for the safety of others but won’t be barred from voting if they refuse.
First-time voters should bring proper identification materials. A list of identification options is posted under the voter registration link at votespa.com.
On the new touchscreen machines, voters will make selections as they did with the old devices. But instead of touching a screen box to lock in their votes, they will receive a paper printout to verify their selections before they feed the paper into a tabulator to be read and saved in compliance with a state paper-trail mandate.
Voters must check the paper ballot for accuracy and should notify a poll worker if there are any mistakes in their choices. If warranted, the poll worker would void the ballot and allow that voter to mark a new one.
No video/audio is permitted inside polling places, Pedri said Monday.
Mail voters
Completed ballots should be dropped off at a box inside the county’s Penn Place Building lobby at 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre, which is open from 8 a.m. until the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day.
Disabled voters can designate a third party to deliver the ballot on their behalf by completing a form at votespa.com.
Voters who received but did not return mail ballots can vote on the electronic ballot marking devices at the polls on Election Day if they bring in their never-returned, mail-in ballot, secrecy envelope and outer mailing envelope to be voided.
Those who don’t have all three items or requested but never received a ballot have the option to cast a hand-marked paper provisional ballot at the polls, officials said. Provisional ballots are marked by hand and reviewed last so the county can verify a mail ballot was not also received from that voter.
Provisional ballots must be placed in a secrecy envelope, which is then inserted in the outer envelope. Three signatures — two from the voter and one from the judge of elections — are required on the outer envelope for the vote to count.
Security
Constables and county sheriff deputies will provide security at polling places, with assistance from state police and other law enforcement entities if issues arise, county officials said.
County and state officials have stressed voter intimidation and discriminatory conduct are illegal under both state and federal law.
Suspected violations should be reported immediately to the county election bureau or district attorney, the state said. Reports also can be made to the Pennsylvania Department of State at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772).
Tabulation
Counties can start unsealing mail ballot envelopes and scanning the ballots, known as pre-canvassing, at 7 a.m. on Election Day. However, counties cannot start to record and publish the counts until the polls close at 8 p.m.
Six four-person teams handling this task are set to assemble inside a third-floor courtroom at Penn Place at 7 a.m. and start the pre-canvassing at 8 a.m. after they are sworn in.
The processing will be faster than it was in the June 2 primary because the county is using a new automated envelope opener on both the outer envelopes and then the secrecy envelopes after they are placed in separate piles so they can’t be associated with specific voters.
The machine will open 30,000 to 40,000 envelopes per hour.
“It is the goal of the county to have all in-person election results reported Tuesday evening as well as a portion of the mail-in ballots,” Pedri said Monday.
Results
As usual, results will be posted and updated at luzernecounty.org after the polls close, Pedri said.
The mail ballots will continue to be counted in subsequent days, with updates posted on the county website every two hours starting at 10 a.m. on Nov. 4, Pedri said.
For statewide results, the Pennsylvania Department of State has updated its online reporting to show both unofficial vote counts and the number of ballots that have been cast but not yet counted, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said Monday.
Vote tallies for each candidate will be posted at https://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/ after the polls close at 8 p.m. In addition to vote totals, the site will show the breakdown of those cast by mail ballot, provisional ballot and on the voting systems at polling places on Election Day.
A supplemental dashboard, accessible through a link at votesPA.com/Counting, will detail the number of outstanding votes not yet tallied. A demo of this results dashboard also is posted.