Luzerne County workers time-stamp mail-in ballots Monday afternoon, with trays lined up awaiting processing in the election bureau at the Penn Place building in Wilkes-Barre.
                                 Jennifer Learn-Andes | Times Leader

Luzerne County workers time-stamp mail-in ballots Monday afternoon, with trays lined up awaiting processing in the election bureau at the Penn Place building in Wilkes-Barre.

Jennifer Learn-Andes | Times Leader

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<p>Luzerne County worker Dana McGonigle scans bar codes that track which voters have turned in mail-in ballots for Tuesday’s primary election.</p>
                                 <p>Jennifer Learn-Andes | Times Leader</p>

Luzerne County worker Dana McGonigle scans bar codes that track which voters have turned in mail-in ballots for Tuesday’s primary election.

Jennifer Learn-Andes | Times Leader

Stamp. Stamp. Beep.

Those sounds were constant inside Luzerne County’s Election Bureau Monday as workers processed a barrage of mail-in ballots the day before the 2020 primary.

Noisy stamping came from two machines that mark the receipt time of each mail-in envelope.

Workers operating the machines plowed through 22 envelope-packed trays that arrived Monday morning and a steady stream of more that continued as voters dropped off ballots at the county’s Penn Place Building and the Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton post offices.

Worker Dana McGonigle generated the beeps as she used a hand-held device to scan the bar codes on each envelope. This code lets the state know which voters have returned ballots, preventing a second one from being cast and counted at the polls.

By Monday afternoon, the bureau had received 35,088 completed mail-in ballots, said county Election Director Shelby Watchilla. That’s 66% of the 53,474 county voters that requested them.

The new option to vote by mail with no excuse or justification required was approved by state legislators last year and has been promoted as a way to avoid safety concerns of in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

Completed ballots must be physically returned to the county election bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and postmarks do not count.

Voters have two options Tuesday if they have not yet returned their ballots — drop them off between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the election bureau on the second floor of the Penn Place building at 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre (free designated parking spots are available on Pennsylvania Avenue) or cast a provisional ballot in person at their polling place.

Next step

After time-stamping and bar code scanning, the ballots were loaded on carts and transported via elevator to a third-floor courtroom that will serve as the mail-in tabulation hub today.

The envelopes can’t be opened until 7 a.m. on Election Day. They contain another sealed envelope inside that has no identifying information and holds the actual ballot.

For now, crews have been organizing the outer envelopes by precinct. Labeled boxes or plastic tubs for each of the 186 voting precincts create a ring around the courtroom, starting with Ashley borough.

Three central scanner/tabulators that will read all this paper have been set up in the area where the judge and court reporter normally sit.

When 7 a.m. arrives, Watchilla said teams will simultaneously unseal the outer envelopes with letter openers and place the inner envelopes on a separate pile to be shuffled as an added measure of secrecy before they also are opened.

Each tabulator can read up to 3,000 ballots per hour, but Watchilla said it’s unknown how fast crews will be able to feed them in because each paper must be unfolded and flattened.

Watchilla compared it to the way a dollar bill sometimes must be smoothed along the edge of a hard surface to get a vending machine to accept it.

Although the mail-in ballots can be unsealed and tallied starting at 7 a.m., no results can be released until after 8 p.m., Watchilla said.

A representative of each political party and candidates or their representatives are permitted to observe this mail-in ballot tabulation.

In the second-floor election office, a technology center has been set up to count flashcard results from polling places on election night.

Voters can cast their ballots in person at 58 locations, which is a temporary reduction of 86 sites due to pandemic-related challenges securing staffing and buildings.

County Manager C. David Pedri said he visited several polling locations Monday to ensure they have proper spacing and hand sanitizer.

“We have a process in place that will allow people to vote safely and securely. People should feel comfortable to vote, and we’re hoping for a good turnout,” Pedri said.

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