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Luzerne County officials previously announced voters interested in a new on-the-spot, ballot-casting option had to be at the Penn Place Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre by 3:30 p.m. due to long wait times, which raised some issues on Tuesday as the deadline came and went.
				Multiple people waiting in line to vote on Tuesday said they were cut off by officers and told they weren&rsquo;t going to be allowed inside to vote in person despite being in line before the 3:30 p.m. deadline.
				&ldquo;Around 3:30 they came out, went to the middle of the line and told everyone behind that point they weren&rsquo;t voting,&rdquo; said Norman Strohdach. &ldquo;There must have been 120 or so people that were behind that cutoff point.&rdquo;
				A group of about 30 or so of those voters stayed outside of Penn Place until after 5 p.m., protesting that they weren&rsquo;t being allowed their right to vote.
				&ldquo;My wife actually called ahead to make sure I could be here,&rdquo; said Miguel Bonilla, who told reporters that he arrived at approximately 3:15 p.m. &ldquo;They told her as long as it was before 3:30 p.m., I could vote in person.&rdquo;
				The on-demand option was only available to voters who did not previously request a mail ballot. The county warned interested voters to expect waits because election workers had to review and approve the mail ballot requests and generate a ballot and envelopes on the spot for voters to cast their ballots. Also, only three voters were permitted in the bureau office at the same time due to social distancing limitations.
				Tuesday was the last day the on-demand voting was available, and county Administrative Services Division Head David Parsnik said approximately 20 voters got in line after 3:30 p.m.
				Although these voters were not permitted to cast ballots at the counter, Parsnik said anyone not in line by the cut-off was provided a mail-in ballot application to have a ballot sent to their residence.
				&lsquo;We want to vote&rsquo;
				Kathy Bozinski, the chair of the Luzerne County Democratic Party, was on hand to try and sort out the situation for the people waiting in line.
				&ldquo;We had hoped that, at some point, they would accommodate everyone who stuck around and get them inside,&rdquo; Bozinski said. &ldquo;Unfortunately, that doesn&rsquo;t seem to be the case.&rdquo;
				Volunteers did provide people waiting in line with these applications, and election officials came out to collect the applications and inform the crowd that the ballots would be mailed to them on Wednesday.
				But this didn&rsquo;t sit well with the dozens of men and women who came out to vote on Tuesday, as chants of &ldquo;We want to vote!&rdquo; broke out on multiple occasions.
				&ldquo;There&rsquo;s too much controversy with these mail-in ballots,&rdquo; Strohdach said. &ldquo;Who knows when we&rsquo;ll get them, or when they&rsquo;ll come back here.&rdquo;
				As with any voters, those arriving after 3:30 p.m. also had the option to submit a mail ballot application online before Tuesday&rsquo;s 5 p.m. deadline, Parsnik said. They also can cast a ballot at the polls on Nov. 3, he said.
				Because voters who missed the on-demand cut-off still had the ability to request mail ballots or vote in person next week, they were not disenfranchised, Parsnik said.
				Voter confusion
				The 5 p.m. deadline for submitting an application online, a separate deadline from Tuesday&rsquo;s 3:30 p.m. deadline to vote on the spot, caused some additional confusion for a few voters, as well.
				Parsnik also noted the on-demand option was an added feature to be provided under parameters set by counties. Penn Place was not a polling place like those required on Election Day. Polling places on Nov. 3 must be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and accommodate all voters in line by 8 p.m., he said.
				Around 5:30 p.m., the last of the crowd waiting for on-demand voting dispersed after being informed by a volunteer that they wouldn&rsquo;t be allowed inside Penn Place, and that their best bet for voting in-person was on Nov. 3.
				That seemed to be the option that many voters will opt to take, rather than use the mail-in ballots provided to them.
				&ldquo;We came out here because we wanted to vote,&rdquo; said one woman who requested to not be named. &ldquo;We are able to vote in person, so that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re going to do.&rdquo;

Controversy, confusion in WB as on-demand voting deadline passes