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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; In light of a controversy over vendor-funded trips, Luzerne County&#8217;s election director won&#8217;t help choose the county&#8217;s new paper-trail voting system, county Manager C. David Pedri said Tuesday.</p><p>&#8220;Our current elections director, Marisa Crispell, will not have any involvement in any way with the selection of the new machines,&#8221; Pedri said during a council work session discussion about an upcoming solicitation for voting system proposals.</p><p>Pedri said later he wants to avoid any appearance of impropriety.</p><p>Crispell had participated in two 2017 Election Systems &amp; Software (ES&amp;S)-funded advisory board trips to Las Vegas and Omaha, Nebraska, where the company is based.</p><p>ES&amp;S is among five vendors expected to submit proposals to supply the new state-mandated system, which must be in use by the April 2020 primary.</p><p>Pedri said he has set up a nine-member committee to screen vendor responses and make a recommendation on which system should be purchased.</p><p>Four employees will be on the committee: Administrative Services Division Head David Parsnik, 911 GIS Manager David Skoronski, Deputy Election Director Mary Beth Steininger and Assistant Solicitor Mark Makowski, Pedri said.</p><p>The five outside committee participants: county Republican Party Chairman Justin Behrens, county Democratic Party Chairman John Pekarovsky, Democratic county Election Board member Peter Ouellette, Republican county Election Board member Anne Davies and registered Independent Rick Williams, a former county councilman.</p><p>While Pedri was not initially sure it would be possible, he said he is trying to have the new system operational for this year&#8217;s November general election so it won&#8217;t be used for the first time in the April 2020 presidential primary, when turnout is expected to be significantly higher.</p><p>Vendor responses are due May 10, and Pedri said he wants to publicly release the request seeking proposals by Monday. The administration could present a recommendation to council in June or July instead of holding off until as late as September as originally planned, he said.</p><p>Council has final say on the system selection and is not required to accept the committee&#8217;s recommendation, Pedri said.</p><p>Council also must determine how to fund the portion of the expense not covered by state or federal funding. To date, the county received a pledge of $327,000 in federal funding toward the purchase of a system, which had been estimated to cost $4 million.</p><p>The county will consider both types of systems that meet the paper-trail requirement, Pedri said. The options are filling in ovals on actual paper or making selections on a computerized ballot-marking device similar to the current system, with the difference that voters must receive a paper printout to verify their selections.</p><p>The paper ballots or printouts are then fed into a tabulator to be read and saved.</p><p>Vendor submissions must include a detailed implementation plan, a recommendation on the quantity of voting equipment needed and an extensive training schedule that includes at least five demonstrations for the general public, the request for proposals says.</p><p>Crispell has said her participation in the trips was cleared by county assistant solicitor Michael Butera and Parsnik and that she stepped down from the advisory role in fall 2017 before the county sought proposals from companies interested in supplying electronic poll books in January 2018.</p><p>ES&amp;S, which ended up receiving the $325,000 electronic poll book contract, covered travel, lodging for two nights and meals for the trips that Crispell had valued at $2,493 in a financial interest statement she amended after the issue surfaced here in December.</p><p>Several council members have said Crispell recommended switching to poll books and should have informed council of her advisory role before they voted. ES&amp;S also had supplied the county&#8217;s current electronic voting machines years before Crispell was hired.</p><p>The state Attorney General&#8217;s Office and both the state and county ethics commissions have been asked to review the matter, according to several sources. The county administration also retained Harrisburg firm McNees Wallace &amp; Nurick LLC in December to perform an internal review, which has been completed but not publicly released.</p><p>In other business Tuesday, council members raised several questions and concerns about Pedri&#8217;s proposal to hire a lobbyist firm &#8212; Harrisburg-based Maverick Strategies &#8212; for $5,000 per month to identify resources and grants that could benefit the county.</p><p>Pedri said numerous other counties and several cities in the state have hired lobbyists, and a Maverick representative will appear at the next council meeting to provide a more detailed explanation of its role and work to help council decide if it wants to proceed.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Luzerne County Courthouse </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_Courthouse.jpg</photo0><caption0>Luzerne County Courthouse </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County election director won’t participate in voting machine selection