web1_Evanina-William.jpg

Security expert coming to Wilkes University offers cyber advice

Newport Township left without a tax collector for 2016

<p>An Indian summer forecast, an historic State Supreme Court election and pivotal races that could reshape Luzerne County and its two largest cities all could combine to boost voter turnout Tuesday.</p><p>Or not.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s an off off year, if I can put it that way,&#8221; Wilkes University political science professor Tom Baldino said of today&#8217;s election. &#8220;There&#8217;s no president or governor race, no major office at the top of the ticket that would attract a large number of voters.&#8221;</p><p>There are mayor races for the replacement of two incumbents who decided not to run: Tom Leighton in Wilkes-Barre and Joe Yannuzzi in Hazleton, and Baldino said those races should be generating more interest, but aren&#8217;t.</p><p>&#8220;Because it&#8217;s an open seat it should be a much more vigorous campaign,&#8221; in both cases, Baldino said. But the candidates have run low-key, low-cost campaigns.</p><p>In Wilkes-Barre, he said, &#8220;Neither candidate appears to have a whole lot of energy to excite the public.</p><p>&#8220;(Democrat Tony) George is arguing we need more police, and (Republican Frank) Sorick says we need to save money. Those are just tired themes. And they both have made some missteps that have called into question their ability to be mayor.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Turnout issue</strong></p><p>In fact, the campaigns have been so unimpressive and voter turnout could be so low &#8212; Baldino predicted a bit more than 20 percent turnout &#8212; a write-in candidate could prove effective.</p><p>&#8220;If ever there was a year for a potentially successful write-in campaign this is it, because of the lack of enthusiasm supporting this race,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The race for Luzerne County district attorney should be another big draw for voters, but also seems to be uninspiring, Baldino said. &#8220;I think the voters just haven&#8217;t been given much to mull over. The candidates are very different and they did have a semblance of a debate last week, but aside from charges of weakness on both sides, I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to generate a lot more voter turnout.&#8221;</p><p>The race for district attorney lacks the scent of scandal injected into the election four years ago, when newcomer Stefanie Salavantis upset Jackie Musto Carroll, in part by linking the incumbent &#8212; unfairly, critics argued &#8212; with the notorious &#8220;Kids for Cash&#8221; courtroom corruption scandal. Even then, Baldino noted, turnout was unimpressive.</p><p>County voters can also reshape County Council, with 12 candidates vying for six seats, but that likely won&#8217;t motivate most people to get to the polls either, Baldino predicted. &#8220;The fact is that the candidates haven&#8217;t done a lot to advertise. The only TV ad I&#8217;ve seen for County Council was for (Democrat Tim) McGinley.&#8221;</p><p>And while this is the first time in centuries the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court has had three vacancies in one election, Baldino said not to expect that fact to increase turnout. For starters, people rarely get to know judicial candidates well enough to have a strong opinion.</p><p><strong>&#8216;Ballot fatigue&#8217;</strong></p><p>&#8220;Personally I&#8217;m not in favor of electing judges because the electorate doesn&#8217;t have enough information with which to evaluate the candidates. They are not the kind of elections people pay attention to until they get in the voting booth, then they vote for the candidate in their party, or walk out and won&#8217;t even cast ballots,&#8221; Baldino said.</p><p>&#8220;That sort of ballot fatigue is not uncommon,&#8221; Baldino added. &#8220;People will just stop voting, and that is kind of sad. In fact the state-wide turnout may appear to be in the low 20s, but for some races it will be lower than that because people just won&#8217;t vote for those offices.&#8221;</p><p>The same is true for two appellate judge positions, one in Superior Court and one in Commonwealth Court, Baldino said. &#8220;We have two separate appellate courts, but collectively we don&#8217;t do enough to educate citizens about our judicial system, and the candidates don&#8217;t spend enough money at that level to educate them.&#8221;</p><p>In the end, a low turnout will likely favor Republicans in those statewide races, Baldino said.</p><p>&#8220;The older one is the more likely they are to vote. The higher one&#8217;s education the more likely they are to vote,&#8221; Baldino said. &#8220;Democrats tend to be younger and less educated.&#8221; That all means Republican candidates tend to suffer less from low turnout than Democrats.</p><p>Adding to potential ballot fatigue, all 11 school districts in Luzerne County have vacant seats. Yet because candidates can and usually do cross-file to run for nominations on both tickets, many races end up non-competitive, with the same number of candidates as there are seats available.</p><p><strong>Wilkes-Barre Area</strong></p><p>That&#8217;s the scenario in Wilkes-Barre Area School District, where, despite a costly and controversial plan to close two high schools and build a new one, there are four incumbents and one newcomer running for five available seats, all on both the Republican and Democratic slates.</p><p>Sam Troy, a frequent critic of the board who has strongly opposed the construction project &#8212; estimated as high as $100 million &#8212; has mounted a write-in campaign, and several members of a new group, Save Our Schools, have called for write-ins, but odds are high that the incumbents will return to the board, likely keeping the project on track.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/election-11-3-151.pdf">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/election-11-3-151.pdf</photo0><caption0></caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Low turnout expected despite some high profile races in Luzerne County