A new automated envelope opener in Luzerne County’s election bureau will speed up mail ballot processing in the Nov. 3 general election, county officials say.
County Election Director Shelby Watchilla demonstrated the machine Monday with a stack of practice outer mailing envelopes, showing how they were instantly sliced open with no damage to the secrecy envelopes containing blank ballots inside.
The bureau also plans to use the machine to open the secrecy envelopes, which must be placed in separate piles after they are removed from the outer envelopes to eliminate identifying links to specific voters.
Making the process more efficient is a priority because the envelopes can’t be opened until 7 a.m. on Election Day under state law unless legislators approve an earlier date for such “pre-canvassing.”
Teams of county workers spent days after the June 2 primary hand-opening envelopes and unfolding and flattening the ballots so they didn’t cause a jam when batches were fed into scanner/tabulators.
Watchilla pursued an automated opener for the general election because some other counties safely and successfully used the machines to mass-open mail ballots during the primary, easing her concerns they would rip paper.
The automated opener cost approximately $7,000 and will be covered by the county’s coronavirus assistance funding, officials said. The machine will open 30,000 to 40,000 envelopes per hour, Watchilla said.
The county has processed 66,416 mail ballot applications for the Nov. 3 general so far, Watchilla said. As of Monday, ballots have been sent to 65,405.
Instead of relying on mail delivery, a steady stream of voters deposited their completed ballots in a drop box inside the county’s Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre Monday.
With county Election Board Chairwoman Jeanette Tait as a witness Monday, county deputy bureau director Dino Ninotti collected the ballots in the drop box as it filled up and delivered them in a tray to a secure room in the building’s second-floor bureau.
The bureau logged receipt of nearly 1,200 returned mail ballots so far, but Watchilla said there are more to record. For tracking purposes, a bar code on the outer envelope must be scanned.
Once again, a line formed outside Penn Place Monday of voters seeking on-the-spot ballot casting.
County officials warned voters they should be prepared to wait for on-demand voting because it takes about a half hour from start to finish.
Voters must submit a mail-in voting application at the bureau counter. After reviewing and approving the request, election staffers must assemble a ballot and envelope packet. The voter must then fill out the ballot and insert it in the correct envelopes with proper signatures so it can be cast.
Only three voters are simultaneously permitted in the bureau to allow for social distancing due to the coronavirus.
This option is available until Oct. 27, which is also the last day for voters to request mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 general.
The exterior of Penn Place took on the feel of a polling place on Election Day, with representatives of both presidential candidates on hand.
Wilkes-Barre resident Bob Caruso, who has been monitoring elections for decades, said people already were in line at 7:30 a.m., even though the bureau did not open until 9 a.m.
“It’s amazing to see all these people come out. It’s been like this all morning,” Caruso said, referring to the line.
In all, the bureau processed 104 on-demand voting requests Monday. A total 84 residents voted on-demand Thursday and Friday, which were the first two days the option was available.
To ensure all voters are processed by the bureau’s 4:3o p.m. closing, it is accepting on-demand requests from voters who are in line by 3:30 p.m. — a change that took effect Monday.
Plymouth Township resident Beverly Clews waited two hours to reach the bureau counter, apply for a ballot and cast it.
The 75-year-old said she is battling health issues and never voted before but felt compelled to support one of the presidential contenders, declining to publicly name which one.
“I just had to vote this time,” Clews said.
Voter registration
While the final tally is still pending, Pennsylvania surpassed the 9 million voter milestone by Monday’s registration deadline as expected by Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar.
The statewide registration breakdown to date, according to a state update report posted Monday: Democrats, 4,207,190; Republicans, 3,506,337; no affiliation, 895,550; and other, 407,086.
The county now has 219,333 registered voters, according to the state update. The registrations: Democrats, 105,998; Republicans, 85,538; no affiliation, 20,600; and other, 7,197.