WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Testing is taking place at the elections warehouse in Luzerne County.
"Logic and accuracy testing is when we program and test all of the equipment for the upcoming election. So, all of our ballot-marking devices and scanners that you'll see in the polling places will be tested during this process," said Emily Cook, Luzerne County's elections operations manager.
In the last few elections, voters have used the ballot-marking devices to create a ballot, but that won't be happening this time around for the majority of voters.
"We'll be using paper ballots for the primary election," said Cook. "The only time you would be seeing somebody use the ballot-marking device during this election would be for a handicap ADA accommodation. There'll only be one ballot-marking device at each precinct. Everybody else is going to be voting on a paper ballot."
Eryn Harvey, the Luzerne County director of elections, assured Newswatch 16 that there are enough paper ballots for every voter in the county and then some.
A paper shortage in November's election required all the polling places in the county to stay open late.
Even though the majority of voters in Luzerne County will not be using ballot-marking devices, each of the printers for each of those ballot-marking devices will be stocked with new paper that was delivered this week.
"All of our equipment is being completely restocked from the previous election," added Cook.
Voters at the polls in Luzerne County will be provided with black felt tip pens to fill out their ballots.
"It's got just all of the contests and the little bubbles or ovals to fill in. You'll use one of these handy dandy little pens at each polling place and fill in the corresponding bubble for your candidates," said Cook.
Voters will still place those ballots into the scanners voters have used in the last few elections.
There are a lot of resources online if you have any questions about how the process works.
"Seven of our polling places have changed for the upcoming primary election, so if you're not sure, please go to (Luzerne County's election website), and we'll have it up there," said Harvey.