The Center Square

Op-Ed: Election improvements come to Luzerne County

By Caleb Hays | Center for Election Confidence.

Oct 25, 2024

Nearly two years ago, during the 2022 election, the unthinkable happened in Luzerne County – polling places were not supplied with enough ballots. As a result, voters, through no fault of their own, were denied their fundamental right to vote.

This was no accident. It was a direct result of the county’s failure to hire experienced election administrators, failure to train its inexperienced election administrators, and failure to adopt written policies and procedures regarding election administration.

However, because of a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by two disenfranchised voters, William French and Melynda Reese, which was supported by the Center for Election Confidence, changes are being made to the way Luzerne County administers its elections.

Discovery in that litigation revealed a troubling pattern in the county. Employees described a “toxic” work environment that led to high turnover of election staff. Indeed, the county churned through three directors of Election, the person responsible for election administration in the county, in less than three years. The director of Election during the 2022 election was thrust into the job only months before that election. This high turnover rate led the county to hire inexperienced personnel who had little to no experience administering elections. To make matters worse, the county offered its inexperienced staff little to no training on the conduct of elections.

Last week, the federal civil rights litigation against Luzerne County reached a conclusion, when the Luzerne County Council finally agreed to adopt a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs. That agreement is the culmination of nearly two years of litigation and vindicates the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs who were denied the right to vote.

This settlement agreement is a massive win for election integrity and for voter confidence for all Luzerne County voters. As part of the settlement agreement, the county agreed – for the first time – to implement concrete, specific, and impactful election integrity measures to address not only the causes of the 2022 ballot paper shortage but also the way the county administers its elections, all of which must be in place before the November 2024 election.

Under the Settlement Agreement, the county, for the first time, will:

• Adopt written policies concerning election procedures that comply with state and federal law;

• Stock sufficient ballot paper of the appropriate weight, as recommended by the voting equipment manufacturer;

• Train county election employees on an annual basis with respect to election administration practices and procedures;

• Provide orientation for all newly hired Bureau of Elections employees, which must include training on state and federal election laws, the Bureau of Elections policies and procedures manual, procedures for procuring sufficient supplies to administer an election, including ballot paper, and the standard operating procedures at polling places, including how to troubleshoot common issues that may arise; and

• Hire a qualified, outside elections attorney that can assist the County in navigating the Pennsylvania Election Code and federal election law.

Furthermore, the county has agreed to transparency with the terms of the settlement agreement to be posted publicly on the county’s website so that all Luzerne County residents may see.

The terms of this agreement are not specialized, difficult, or onerous. Rather, they are a model set of rules and basic commonsense principles that every county election board and administration should follow. They reflect basic best practices for election administration employed by local elections officials across the country.

In America, the right to vote is fundamental for qualified American citizens. While Mr. French and Ms. Reese cannot get back their right to vote that Luzerne County denied in 2022, the county’s acknowledgement that reforms are needed is an important step toward correcting the mistakes of the past and ensuring they don’t happen again. And that’s a win for all of us.