Oct. 24—The Luzerne County Board of Elections had only two voting matters on the agenda Wednesday, but the meeting lasted nearly three hours due to a barrage of mixed public commentary.

Republican activist Scott Presler, who has 1.7 million followers on the social media platform the Board of Elections and the Office of Elections over claims that voters are being persecuted. disenfranchised.

Citing a backlog of unprocessed voter registration applications and claims that ballots are not being issued in a timely manner, he immediately posted about his lawsuit as a “breaking” warning to his X-followers.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo provided a status report at the meeting, saying 2,500 voter registration applications have been submitted before Monday’s deadline and need to be processed.

Crocamo said the requests pending review and approval are both paper and online applications and include new voter registrations and requests for political party and address changes.

She reiterated that some of the requests are duplicates because voters are already registered but did not opt ​​out of the state’s automatic registration when they renewed their driver’s licenses.

As for mail-in ballots, Crocamo told the board that the county has issued 51,000 ballots to date, and 17,000 completed ballots have been returned by voters.

While the number of outstanding mail-in ballots was unclear at the meeting, Crocamo later said the office has processed all mail-in ballots submitted through Monday.

All remaining mail-in ballots should be processed by the end of the business day Thursday, Crocamo said.

Tuesday is the last day voters can request a ballot for the Nov. 5 general election, including requests for “on-demand” ballots at the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Crocamo said.

Crocamo said temporary workers and staff from other county departments are assisting the agency, which works evenings and weekends.

In the first round of voting, the volunteer board of five citizens approved the November 5 election proclamation, making the election public in 186 constituencies from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with all candidates appearing on the ballot paper and at each polling station.

The board also unanimously agreed to refer four ballots from the April primary to the county attorney’s office over questions regarding witness verification required when voters are unable to sign their ballot due to disability or illness.

During the post-primary review, four ballots were rejected for not having a signature or mark. Because the same person served as a witness for all four nursing home residents, the board is asking the district attorney to make sure there are no problems.

Public comment

About 30 citizens spoke during public comment on a range of topics.

One man thanked the board for preserving two ballot boxes, while others condemned the continued existence of the ballot boxes.

On the side of the box critics, some were angry that they were forced to place their ballots in the box at Penn Place when they used the on-demand voting by mail option, with one of them emphasizing that on-demand ballots were not at the drop-off may be counted. box usage statistics as future justification for keeping dropboxes.

There were complaints about delays in receiving ballots, while others said they had no problem and had already returned their ballots.

The long wait for on-demand ballots angered some speakers.

Denise Williams, chair of the Board of Elections, was both criticized and praised by the speakers.

One woman claimed complaints are being exaggerated to create a sense of chaos ahead of the election, while others said they are proactively pointing out valid concerns in a province still distrusted due to past issues such as a shortage of election papers in 2022.

Several parties called on state lawmakers to revise election laws.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.