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Luzerne County is still on track to start sending out mail-in ballots by the weekend, possibly as early as Friday, county Administrative Services Division Head David Parsnik said Wednesday.
				To date, the county has processed 62,424 applications for Nov. 3 general election mail-in ballots, said county Election Director Shelby Watchilla.
				Ohio-based Election IQ LLC is handling printing and mailing of the county-approved ballots.
				Statewide, counties have approved nearly 2.5 million mail ballot applications, and almost 96% of those ballots have been mailed, or are about to be mailed in the next day or two, to voters in more than 60 of the state&rsquo;s 67 counties, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said during a media briefing Wednesday.
				About 92,750 mail-in ballots, or just under 4%, already have been voted and returned to counties, Boockvar said.
				Along with instructions, mail-in voters receive a ballot, an unmarked white secrecy envelope and an outer envelope that contains the voter&rsquo;s name and a label with a bar code that, when scanned, identifies that voter in the state&rsquo;s database.
				After filling out the ballot, voters must place it in the white envelope, seal it and then put that envelope inside the one with the label/barcode to be returned to the county.
				Naked ballot warning
				Boockvar reminded voters Wednesday that ballots not placed in the secrecy envelopes &mdash; now known as &ldquo;naked ballots&rdquo; &mdash; will not be counted due to a court ruling.
				During processing, secrecy envelopes are shuffled as a way to prevent the linking of ballots to specific individuals.
				The option to vote by mail with no excuse or reason required was available for the first time in the June 2 primary due to bipartisan state legislation that passed last year. For perspective on the current volume, the county had processed more than 53,440 requests for mail-in ballots and ended up receiving 40,300 returned ballots in the primary.
				Nearly 1.5 million voters statewide cast their ballots by mail in the primary, which means about 1 million more have requested the mail-in option for the general election, Boockvar said Wednesday.
				The party affiliation of voters who requested mail-in ballots throughout the state to date, according to statistics released Wednesday: Democrats, 1,628,401; Republicans, 600,487; other, 259,480.
				On-the-spot voting option
				In addition to voting in-person at the polls on Election Day, another option is available to registered voters who have not requested mail-in ballots, Boockvar said Wednesday.
				With this third option, voters can visit their county election bureau and submit a mail-in voting application, receive the ballot on the spot if the request is approved and fill out and cast the ballot in the same visit.
				Boockvar said she plans to vote that way this week.
				This option, which is being dubbed by some as &ldquo;early voting,&rdquo; also was added as part of the bipartisan Act 77 approved last fall, the state said.
				Several county residents criticized the option at a county election board meeting this week.
				County Councilman Walter Griffith said it will &ldquo;tie up&rdquo; election staff and potentially bring unnecessary lines of voters to the bureau at a time the office is still trying to maintain social distancing and other coronavirus pandemic protocols.
				Kingston resident Brian Shiner said requiring election workers to individually process applications and prepare the ballot materials on demand is a &ldquo;very big hassle&rdquo; for employees and may be a &ldquo;nightmare&rdquo; if there is a high volume of such requests.
				County assistant solicitor Michael Butera acknowledged these concerns but said the county must comply because the option is required by state law.
				Watchilla said Wednesday she does not know if the requirement will become a significant burden because it won&rsquo;t be available until the Nov. 3 ballots are printed for this week&rsquo;s mailing. She said she already received inquiries from several voters who are interested in the option.
				Some other updates on election matters:
				&#8226; Voter registration
				Boockvar said state officials believe Pennsylvania&rsquo;s voter registration is at a record high 8.9 million.
				The breakdown: Democrats, 4.175 million; Republicans, 3.46 million; Independent/no affiliation/other, 1.27 million.
				In the county, 217,300 voters are now registered &mdash; 105,502 Democrats, 84,359 Republicans and 27,439 Independent/no affiliation/other.
				&#8226; Drop-off options
				Watchilla said the county&rsquo;s only mail-in ballot drop-off box is inside the election bureau at the county-owned Penn Place building on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street in Wilkes-Barre. The box is only accessible when the office is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.
				Closer to the election &mdash; a date has not been announced &mdash; voters will be able to bring their mail-in ballots to the counter at the Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton post offices, where the ballots will be segregated by postal workers and picked up daily by the county to avoid mailing delays.
				During the election board meeting, several citizens sought reassurance that more than one county worker would be retrieving these ballots from the post offices and delivering them to the county election bureau, saying a second person is necessary for security reasons and a check-and-balance.
				Parsnik said teams of sheriff deputies or election bureau workers will handle that duty.
				&#8226; Poll watchers
				Faced with inquiries about the potential for poll watchers intimidating voters, the state issued guidance to counties on the matter Tuesday, Boockvar said.
				Candidates and political parties can appoint registered voters to serve as watchers to observe inside polling places on Election Day, with a county-issued certificate required.
				Under state and federal law, poll watchers cannot attempt to intimidate or influence voters or interfere with the orderly election process, Boockvar said. Examples of intimidation include photographing/videotaping voters, blocking polling place entrances, disseminating false or misleading information, asking voters for documentation and directly speaking to or questioning voters, she said.
				State election officials are working closely with law enforcement, the National Guard, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and other partners to ensure they are all in &ldquo;lockstep&rdquo; before and after Election Day to prevent intimidation and &ldquo;defuse what we know is a very high tension circumstance right now,&rdquo; Boockvar said.
				Election results
				In her Wednesday briefing, Boockvar repeatedly urged state legislators to allow counties to start opening mail-in ballots before Election Day &mdash; a process known as pre-canvassing &mdash; so they are ready to be loaded into tabulators and tallied on election night.
				As it stands under state law, election workers must wait until 7 a.m. on Election Day to start opening the outer envelopes, shuffle and then open the secrecy envelopes, unfold the ballots and flatten out paper creases so they can be scanned.
				Counties have been developing plans to accurately tabulate results as quickly as possible, Boockvar said.
				&ldquo;I think the overwhelming majority of ballots cast in person and cast by mail will be able to be counted in a matter of days, not a matter of weeks,&rdquo; Boockvar said, stressing that would exclude provisional ballots that must be counted last and mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day that must be counted if they are received by 5 p.m. Nov. 6.

County on track to send out mail-in ballots by weekend