Equipment issues briefly delayed voting at a couple of Luzerne County polling locations

Voting got off to a rocky start Tuesday at a couple of polling locations in Luzerne County, a once reliably blue county that voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

The Northeastern Pennsylvania county in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains drew national headlines during the midterm elections two years ago when the county experienced a paper shortage that prompted a judge to extend voting to 10 p.m.

Voters experienced a bit of deja vu Tuesday at Laflin Borough’s St. Maria Goretti Center. When the polls opened at 7 a.m., voters learned workers were unable to access a scanner that processes ballots — the lock was jammed.

People in line said the long wait reminded them of the 2022 election. Poll workers had two of their four machines up and running by 8:40 a.m., and the remainder were operating 10 minutes later.

By that time, however, several people had left because they had to go to work.

“I have places to go, people to see,” said one man who declined to give his name.

The problem was short-lived, but in a presidential election where any logistical hurdle with a voting machine is ripe for politicization, such issues are also being exaggerated on social media.

Some social media accounts said St. Maria’s had run out of paper, which was never the case. County Manager Romilda Crocamo, who is overseeing election operations, said a judge of elections showed up late due to an emergency. Then a scanner lock was jammed and could not be opened, according to election workers.

County officials asked for the location to remain open until 9:30 p.m. — an additional 90 minutes, to mirror the delay in opening in the morning — and a Common Pleas Court judge agreed, according to court records.

Anna Chiumento, 32, was one of the first people in line and stuck around until she could cast her ballot. She said her flexible work-from-home job that didn’t require her to clock in until 9 a.m. helped.

“It’s a big election and it’s important to exercise my civic duty,” she said. “And I thought the lines would be longer later.”

Once the machines were up and running, the line began to move at a rapid clip.

By the time all the kinks had been worked out, several voters had left the line, frustrating people like Barbera Kasper, 75.

“Republican or Democrat, the equipment should be working, our votes are supposed to count,” said Kasper. “It’s almost like people have to bring their own paper.”

There were similar hiccups at Lake Township Municipal Building in Harveys Lake, where election workers were locked out of voting machines in the morning.

Scott Walsh, 43, said the line was starting to pile up around 7:15 a.m. when he arrived to hand out sample ballots for his uncle Jamie Walsh, a Republican running for a state House seat in Luzerne County.

Scott Walsh said people could vote with paper ballots as workers waited for someone from the county election bureau to troubleshoot the issue. For the most part, voters in the conservative stronghold took the inconvenience in stride, he said.

“People would sigh a little bit and then they’d come out and say the paper ballots are not that bad,” said Walsh.

By 8:15 a.m., the line had dwindled and Walsh took the opportunity to cast his own ballot. By 9:45 a.m., the machines were back up, and Walsh said the morning overall “seemed OK.”

Overall, the day went smoothly, said Richard Morelli, one of the two Republican members of the election board — an all-volunteer entity that is tasked with certifying the results.

He said one polling station — he was unclear which one— didn’t have fully charged machines but the issue was addressed fairly quickly, though someone who had to vote with a paper ballot took issue with that.

“One polling place told me someone came in and wanted to vote for their kids and they were like, ‘nope, you can’t,’ and they cause a scene,” said Morelli. “You’re gonna always have these one-offs.”

In the days and weeks before the election, county elections officials had described being under intense pressure to maintain faith in the election process in the key battleground of Pennsylvania. What’s more, they had to do it under a siege of threats and misinformation.

The Luzerne County Bureau of Elections building in Wilkes-Barre was evacuated around 7 p.m. due to an emailed bomb threat, according to one election official.

The bureau had already implemented a series of physical safety measures for staff ahead of the election, including a bulletproof wall in the office, boulders should anyone try to ram a vehicle into the building, and a special ballistic-resistant film has been placed in the lobby so that people can see out but no one can see in.

“Always excitement here in Luzerne County,” said Morelli after workers were let back into the building around 9:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro said state, local law enforcement, and the FBI were investigating the threats throughout the state “and thus far there is no credible threat.”

» READ MORE: Multiple bomb threats reported at polling places across Pennsylvania, but officials say ‘no credible threats’

Crocamo, the county manager and Democrat who oversees the Bureau of Elections, has spent recent months reminding voters that poll workers and election staffers are their neighbors.

“They’re the people who you go to church with, they’re the people who you see at Little League games, you see them at the grocery store,” she said recently. “There’s no grand conspiracy. There is no reason why you have to insult them, harass them.”

Staff writers Chris Palmer and Andrew Seidman contributed to this article.