WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A new tool in the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections is already getting put to work. The $315,000 ballot-sorting machine can separate the ballots by precinct, scanning each ballot envelope as it passes through, checking for any deficiencies.
"Sometimes the barcodes need to be rescanned just because they are smudged, so once that process is complete, we close that run of ballots, and then we do an export for signature verification. And what that is, is we are checking to make sure there is a signature and a date. We look for any deficiencies like a wrong date or a missing signature, wrong signature, things like that," explained Jennifer Pecora, division head of administrative services.
If the machine detects any issues, an election official will check the ballots manually.
Newswatch 16 got to see a demonstration of the process with a batch of ballots returned to the office. Officials say the new machine will speed up the process that used to be drawn out, delaying results.
"They were scanning every ballot one by one by hand, checking them for deficiencies, which was very time-consuming. So this process, we did 750 ballots, what you saw in about a three-minute period for scanning them."
Under Act 88, election bureaus across the state have to remain on-site until all of the ballots are counted on election night. To date, 20,000 ballots in Luzerne County have been returned out of the 31,000 requests.
"We have to have the ballots counted by midnight on election night, so with that being said, the machine has already got us ahead of the game because, on Election Day, we are still going to be receiving ballots at the drop boxes," Pecora said.
After the process is complete, the scanned ballots are taken to a secure room where they are locked up and await the counting process on Election Day.
An interview with the CEO of the company that manufactures the system is available below.