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Even though all 10 of his Luzerne County Council colleagues voted the night before to remove him and two citizens from their county election board seats, Stephen J. Urban continued his objections Wednesday.
				Urban sent an email to council around noon Wednesday saying &ldquo;no one on the election board is abdicating their responsibilities until the proper legal action is followed under statute and case law.&rdquo;
				He pointed to a case law that he says supports his argument the removal should have been pursued through a &ldquo;quo warranto action&rdquo; in which a county district attorney or state attorney general is requested to seek a court ruling on a removal in dispute.
				County Assistant Solicitor Vito DeLuca said Urban is citing a case law that does not apply to election board situation and said it&rsquo;s part of a persistent trend of some individuals &ldquo;presenting their own legal theories even though they are not attorneys.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;I have been an attorney for almost 30 years. Mr. Urban can research the law all he wants. There&rsquo;s a reason we go to school for seven years to become attorneys,&rdquo; DeLuca said.
				DeLuca reiterated council was on solid legal ground vacating the election board seats held by Urban and the two fellow Republicans &mdash; Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt and Keith Gould &mdash; who appointed Urban to the board chairman seat in surprise move one week ago.
				The county home rule charter states no election board member shall be or have been an elected county official at the time of appointment or for four years prior. State election law gives home rule counties the option to establish an election board of legislative members or others, and the county&rsquo;s charter specified the board is five citizens.
				Council acted under a charter provision allowing council to vacate board seats when board members have &ldquo;willfully and knowingly violated sections of the charter.&rdquo;
				In his Wednesday email, Urban argued council members do &ldquo;not have black robes&rdquo; as a legislative body.
				&ldquo;We as a body do not get to simply be judge, jury, and executioner,&rdquo; he asserted.
				DeLuca said Urban is &ldquo;putting out words&rdquo; and &ldquo;misleading others&rdquo; &mdash; a situation he described as a &ldquo;very serious thing.&rdquo;
				As a result, DeLuca said he is forced to publicly make a statement emphasizing the three are &ldquo;absolutely not&rdquo; election board members and will not be recognized as such.
				&ldquo;They cannot take any action representing the board of elections in any capacity. If that occurs, there will be consequences,&rdquo; DeLuca said.
				Board members needed
				Council Vice Chairman Chris Perry urges citizens to immediately apply for election board seats because the board is now down to one member: Democrat Audrey Serniak.
				Council must appoint two Republicans and one more Democrat under the charter. The council-appointed members must then select a fifth board member/chair from any political party or of no affiliation.
				Council-appointed board applicants must be publicly interviewed and screened by council&rsquo;s Authorities, Boards and Commissions (ABC) Committee before they can be placed on an eligibility list for possible appointment by council.
				Applications to serve on any board are posted on the ABC section at <a href="https://www.luzernecounty.org/747/Authorities-Boards-Commissions-Listing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">luzernecounty.org</a>.
				The ABC Committee has scheduled a virtual meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, with the hope election board applicants will surface, said council Vice Chairman Chris Perry, who chairs that committee.
				If so, council could make appointments as soon as Tuesday, when a regular voting meeting is scheduled.
				An election board meeting had been scheduled for Wednesday, but must be cancelled if at least two new members are not appointed and sworn in before then. The charter requires a quorum of three for the board to meet and conduct business.
				The board serves as an independent citizen body to oversee elections, make determinations on flagged ballots and write-in votes and certify election results.
				County Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo said she notified the Pennsylvania Department of State about council&rsquo;s decision and the non-quorum status of the election board. In the interim, Crocamo said she is confident all processes and procedures will be handled.
				Before council had voted on the three board removals, Urban asserted the action would &ldquo;decimate&rdquo; the board and negatively impact the adjudication of petitions due Tuesday for candidates seeking placement on the May 18 primary election ballot.
				County Assistant Solicitor Michael Butera, who handles election matters, said challenges to candidate petitions are filed in the county Court of Common Pleas.
				In rare cases, the county election bureau may flag blatant petition deficiencies that rise to the level of warranting rejection, Butera said. He said he typically consults with election board members before denying a petition, particularly if candidates are unable to correct deficiencies because the petition filing deadline has passed.
				If this situation occurs before the election board has a quorum, Butera said he would review the petition in question and, if warranted, seek a court ruling on the bureau&rsquo;s behalf. He emphasized the bureau infrequently rejects petitions because outside parties have the option to challenge petitions.
				Objections to petitions must be filed by March 16.
				Butera said the most pressing need for obtaining a board quorum is its requirement to approve the primary election ballot and possibly polling place changes.
				However, the bureau can&rsquo;t start assembling the ballot before the end of March because it has to wait for the March 24 deadline for candidates to withdraw and the outcome of court rulings on petition challenges, if there are any, Butera said.

Luzerne County seeking election board members