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

Republican activist Scott Presler, who disenfranchises 1.7 million followers on the social media platform.

Citing a backlog of unprocessed voter registration applications and claims that mail-in ballots were not being issued on time, he promptly posted information about his lawsuit as a “timely” warning to his X followers.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo provided a status report during the meeting and said there were 2,500 voter registration applications submitted by Monday's deadline that needed to be processed.

Crocamo said the applications awaiting review and approval are both paper and online applications and include new voter registrations and requests for changes of political parties and addresses.

She reiterated that some applications were duplicates because voters were already registered but did not opt ​​out of the state's automatic registration when renewing their driver's license.

Regarding mail-in ballots, Crocamo told the board that the county has issued 51,000 ballots so far and 17,000 completed ballots have been returned by voters.

While it was unclear during the meeting how many absentee ballot applications were still outstanding, Crocamo later said the office had processed all absentee ballot applications submitted as of Monday.

All remaining absentee ballot applications should be processed by the close of business Thursday, Crocamo said.

Tuesday is the last day voters can request a mail-in 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 employees from other county departments support the office, working evenings and weekends.

In the first election matter, the volunteer board of five citizens approved the November 5 election proclamation, which provided for the required public notice of elections in 186 county precincts from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., taking into account all candidates appearing on the ballot and all polling places.

The board also unanimously agreed to forward four ballots from the April primary election to the district attorney's office because of questions raised related to witness verification, which is required when voters are unable to sign their ballot envelope due to a disability or illness.

In the decision after the primary election, four ballot papers were rejected because they had neither a signature nor a stamp. Because the same person served as a witness for all four nursing home residents, the board is asking the DA's office to make sure there are no problems.

Public comment

Approximately 30 citizens commented on various topics during public comment.

One man thanked the board for maintaining two mail-in voting boxes, while others criticized the continued existence of mailboxes.

On the ballot box critics side, some were upset that they were forced to place their ballots in the ballot box at Penn Place when using the on-demand absentee voting option, with one emphasizing that on-demand ballots will not be counted in voting Box usage statistics should be used as future justification for keeping Dropboxes.

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

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

Electoral committee chairwoman Denise Williams was both criticized and praised by speakers.

One woman claimed the complaints were being exaggerated to create a sense of chaos in the run-up to the election, while others said they were proactively highlighting legitimate concerns in a county in decline due to past problems, such as a lack of 2022 ballot papers , is still met with distrust.

Several called on state lawmakers to overhaul election-related laws.

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