Luzerne County Election Board members Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt, Keith Gould and Peter Ouellette are seen continuing to review primary election ballots on Monday.
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Luzerne County’s unofficial primary election tally has changed slightly as more ballots were reviewed, according to a summary county Election Director Shelby Watchilla released Monday.
After the June 2 primary, the county Election Board had to determine which provisional ballots and flagged mail-in ballots were accepted or denied. Votes cast in all races are updated daily online at www.luzernecounty.org under the election night results link.
In total, 64,306 Democrats and Republicans cast ballots in the primary — 40,161 through mail-in and 24,145 at polling places, the summary shows.
That means 62% overall opted for mail-in voting, which was authorized by state legislators and became heavily promoted as a way to avoid coronavirus safety concerns.
While last year’s legislation authorizing the no-excuse-required, mail-in option and other election reforms had bi-partisan support, it was chosen by more county Democrats than Republicans, the summary indicates.
On the Democratic side, nearly 26% cast ballots by mail, while about 8% appeared in person at the polls. Party turnout was 33%, with 104,958 Democrats registered.
Meanwhile, a little over 16% of Republicans chose mail-in, with another 20% casting ballots in person. Republican turnout was almost 37% of the total 80,232 registered.
Counting continues
Following an all-day review session Friday, the Election Board continued checking provisional and mail-in ballots from 8 a.m. to noon Monday.
As a safeguard, voters who had requested mail-in ballots were required to vote provisionally if they appeared at the polls so election officials could later verify they were not voting twice. If provisional ballots are approved, the results must be transcribed to a regular ballot and scanned in.
Election Board Vice Chairman Peter Ouellette estimated only approximately 50 provisional ballots were duplicates and not counted. He believes those voters were up against the deadline and voted in person in case the county did not receive the ballot they mailed in.
“I don’t see any kind of sinister act. I think they just want to make sure their vote counted,” Ouellette said.
Most of several hundred flagged mail-in ballots were counted, he said. The vast majority had proper signatures but were not sealed in privacy envelopes that were supposed to be placed inside the exterior mailed envelope, he said. Rejections primarily were due to a lack of signatures, leaving the board with no way to verify they were authorized by that voter, he said.
“There’s an awful lot of talk about voter fraud, but we don’t see it,” Ouellette said.
The board will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday to continue adjudicating remaining questions and count write-in votes.
Ouellette said board members are hopeful they will complete their review by Wednesday’s board meeting, which is set for 4:30 p.m.
In his final analysis of the entire election process, Ouellette said many stepped up in a “terrific team effort.”
“In comparison to some other counties, I think we did extremely well,” he said.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.