WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Primary Election Day is April 23, and the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections wants to make sure everyone who wants to be on the ballot knows how to make that happen.
"We are doing a petition training next week for all candidates that have to file with the election bureau," said Eryn Harvey, the Luzerne County director of elections. "I think it's the first ever that we've done this for the county, and we just want to do this to make sure candidates know exactly what they're supposed to do to get on the ballot."
In the past, people had trouble navigating the process.
"What we would see is the candidates would come here to the bureau to file, and they would be missing certain things, and they would have to go back and get things notarized and things like that," added Harvey.
This training is for local and municipal offices only. Those seeking federal or state offices will have to go through the Pennsylvania Department of State.
"There is going to be a government study commission on the ballot this primary as well as there's going to be Republican county committee. So again, those are local offices," explained Harvey.
This training is an effort to cut down on complaints the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections receives.
"We're trying to do as much as we can to help voters, to help candidates, and to be more transparent. So that way, you don't have as many issues," said Harvey.
The training will be at Penn Place in Wilkes-Barre on January 22 at 2 p.m. in room 301
"After we're done with that, we're going to put it on our website. So that way, if you work during that time, if you can't make it, that you'll be able to access it online later," added Harvey.