District of Lucerne gears up for busy 2023 municipal elections

Lucerne County is now entering a busy municipal election year with hundreds of candidates vying for seats on district, municipal and school boards.

Candidates can begin packing for the primary on Wednesday May 16 at the District Elections Office at the Penn Place Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre.

February 14 is the first day candidates are allowed to distribute and submit petitions.

The list of candidates will become known around March 7, which is the deadline for distribution and petitions.

In response to ballot errors found during the latest 2021 municipal elections, Acting County Electoral Director Beth McBride said she has taken an additional step of verification, according to an email she sent to the county’s five-member election committee.

Beginning with this year’s primary, all municipalities and school districts will be required to sign sample ballots to make sure the open seats they’ve given the electoral bureau are correct, McBride said.

Candidates will also be required to view and sign sample ballots, she said. The information will be included in candidate packages so they are aware of this expectation, she told the board.

Past mistakes

Šikshinni’s ballot for the 2021 general election erroneously stated that voters must elect four city councillors, even though only three seats were open. District officials said the error was the fault of the district because a district employee officially informed the district electoral bureau that four seats were open prior to this year’s primary.

The Electoral Bureau requires each municipality to certify the positions and terms that must appear on the ballot.

Because the district entered the wrong number, the district sent a courtesy notice to Shikshinni voters stating that they must select up to three candidates in this race.

The district’s mayor argued that the district should have corrected the error before the general election because she noticed the error in her primary mail ballot and alerted the electoral bureau. However, county officials said the county never submitted an amended form requesting remedial action.

County officials said errors in three other municipalities were made by the county’s voting system provider, Dominion Voting Systems Inc. — and were not detected by the county electoral bureau when it checked and signed the ballots for the 2021 general election.

In Plymouth Township, ballot papers were sent to 323 voters incorrectly indicating that one warden seat was open when there should have been two. The names of candidates for the seats of tax collector and constables were changed on the mail-in ballots for the voters of the town of Bear Creek.

The county mailed out corrected replacement ballots and letters explaining errors to voters in both townships and corrected ballot errors on Election Day at the polling stations.

The Swoyersville Council nominee was also listed as the Republican nominee, although the correct affiliation would have to have been Republican/Unaffiliated. Because the error was found to be too close to the general, it was only corrected for ballots on Election Day.

Then-Plymouth Township Superintendent Gail Conrad said she would keep the county on her word at the time that ballot screening would start early and be stepped up in future elections.

County Election Commissioner Denise Williams said last week that she favors mandatory review by municipalities and school districts before ballots are finalized and an earlier review to allow time for corrections to be made before ballots are mailed.

“We ended up having to redo ballots in 2021, which amounted to delays,” Williams said.

Voting progress

McBride said municipalities and school districts must submit an official form by Feb. 14, listing the office locations to be included on the primary ballot as well as the length of each term.

On Jan. 11, she sent a letter to each jurisdiction with a form and deadline, noting that they must also list partial term vacancies to be filled in this year’s elections due to the death or resignation of an elected official.

To date, the election bureau has received 58 responses to 96 letters sent to municipalities and school districts, McBride said. She plans to send out reminders to those who haven’t responded yet.

Municipalities and school districts that did not receive the letter should send an email to [email protected].

“Given the legal deadlines, I am prioritizing this so we can address any issues early and continue to meet our deadlines,” McBride told the board.

The bureau has begun posting information about upcoming primary elections on the luzernecounty.org election page.

Contact Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or tweet @TLJenLearnAndes.