WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Efforts are underway in Luzerne County to improve the way elections are run in the county and across the commonwealth.
A newly formed election task force is taking a look at issues and problems that are faced by virtually every county in Pennsylvania and how they might be resolved.
The election task force is comprised of 14 citizens who volunteered to take a close look at the election system and process in Luzerne County and beyond, then make recommendations for improvements to that process to state lawmakers..
"We talked about some of the issues that we all saw, that the State didn't spell out clearly enough and left us holding the bag," Luzerne County Election Task Force Member and Moderator Jim Rose stated.
Rose says the task force, whose members come from all walks of life, will take a hard, deep dive into the election process.
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The lessons learned in Luzerne County and what can be done to rectify those issues that are faced by all 67 counties in Pennsylvania.
"Our mission is to take a look at election law, Pennsylvania election law, and see where the shortcomings are, as far as what we experienced in the last election. Then, we are going to put together some recommendations, then we hope to be able to present them to the State too," Rose explained.
The task force has already identified one big issue that Luzerne County struggled with in the past election that he says must be addressed by state election officials.
"With the on-demand voting, which is actually on-demand mail-in voting, they didn't provide us with any guidance. They didn't provide us with any direction or how to set up and how to correct it, so it was a big mess," Rose continued.
Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo called for the formation of the task force. She says Luzerne County is not alone when it comes to dealing with what she calls are "shortcomings" in Pennsylvania's election process.
"We need to really upgrade our equipment, and we have to be able to have a better communications when we upload the ballots that they go immediately to the State," Crocamo stated.
The task force will hear from and talk with anyone involved in the election process. They will also talk with election officials from other counties, then make recommendations and a report to state lawmakers.
