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Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri said he was &ldquo;as shocked as anyone&rdquo; Tuesday when friends and family phoned to report he had been mentioned by name during a White House media briefing.
				In a discussion about elections, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany referred to this CBS quote from Pedri about delays linked to mass mail-in voting: &ldquo;I have this nightmare of CNN, Fox, CBS and everyone else waiting for these things to come in on election night, and we don&rsquo;t have them.&rdquo;
				McEnany said Luzerne County&rsquo;s experience was replicated across the state.
				&ldquo;As we&rsquo;ve seen in Pennsylvania, as we&rsquo;ve seen in New York, as we&rsquo;ve seen across the country, the President is very concerned about delays and outright fraud,&rdquo; she said.
				To be clear, Pedri said Tuesday he has been and continues to be a &ldquo;strong advocate for mail-in ballots.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;They are a great way for every voter to do their civic duty safely, especially in light of the pandemic that we are currently facing,&rdquo; Pedri said.
				He pointed to the county&rsquo;s aging population, saying many are &ldquo;at risk&rdquo; and may find it &ldquo;harder for them to get around.&rdquo;
				Among Pennsylvania counties, Luzerne had the largest number of Democrats per capita casting mail-in ballots in the June 2 primary election and the second highest number of Republicans per capita, he said.
				&ldquo;So it&rsquo;s clear that many Luzerne County voters are interested in this option,&rdquo; he said.
				Pedri said he is advocating ways to streamline the cumbersome processing of mail-in ballots &ldquo;so that our votes could be counted as quickly as possible on Election Day.&rdquo;
				His phone immediately started ringing when McEnany mentioned him, he said.
				&ldquo;This job never ceases to amaze me, and I never know what challenges each day will bring,&rdquo; he said.
				He believes the singling out of Luzerne County shows Northeastern Pennsylvania &ldquo;is on the radar of the national campaigns and that we will play a critical role in the upcoming election.&rdquo;
				The media question that prompted the Pedri mention related to President Donald Trump&rsquo;s suggestion that he has the right to impose an executive order involving mail-in balloting. The reporter asked what part of the Constitution would empower Trump to carry out such an executive action.
				McEnany said she won&rsquo;t &ldquo;get engaged in a hypothetical as to what the actions would be and what authorities they would be based upon for yet-to-be announced actions.&rdquo; She then pointed to the CBS report and Pedri&rsquo;s quote as an example to &ldquo;underscore the President&rsquo;s concern.&rdquo;
				Echoing statements he&rsquo;s made locally, Pedri&rsquo;s quote in the CBS report was followed by his observation that results were delayed because of the cumbersome steps involved in processing mail-in ballots.
				Teams of county workers had to spend days opening outer envelopes, shuffling the sealed secrecy envelopes inside and then opening those to access mail-in ballots that had to be unfolded and smoothed so they didn&rsquo;t cause a jam when batches were fed into scanner/tabulators.
				The envelopes couldn&rsquo;t be cracked open until 7 a.m. on Election Day under state law.
				County Election Board members then reviewed mail-in and provisional ballots to make sure only one ballot was accepted from each voter and ruled on flagged issues, such as missing signatures or failure to place ballots in the secrecy envelopes.
				Election Board members recently voted to ask state legislators to allow returned mail-in ballots to be counted earlier, which would speed up the tally of election results and reduce costs and manpower &mdash; a request Pedri supports.
				Confidentiality requirements and penalties would be necessary to prevent any party or person from revealing information before the polls close on Election Day, the board said.
				The board also suggested changing deadlines to allow more time for county election bureaus to process mail-in applications and permitting voters to return mail-in ballots to their polling places during voting hours on Election Day.
				Approximately 40,300 county voters cast their ballots by mail on June 2 &mdash; an option that was encouraged in the coronavirus pandemic and available with no excuse or reason required for the first time due to state legislation that had passed last year.
				About 36,400 county mail-in voters already checked a box on their primary applications indicating they want to receive a mail-in ballot again for the Nov. 3 general, and additional requests continue to arrive, election officials said.

Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri “shocked” to be mentioned in White House media briefing