Lackawanna County will again deploy a series of secure drop boxes where voters can deposit mail-in primary election ballots, something the county has done without issue since the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s an issue that proved contentious in the fall, when Democratic Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Matt McGloin, acting in their capacities as members of the county election board, rejected an attempt by Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak to prevent the use of ballot drop boxes for the 2024 presidential election. A cadre of politically conservative residents also criticized the use of drop boxes last year, several of whom made dubious claims about the secure receptacles and the propensity for voter fraud.
The lone public speaker at a county election board meeting this week, Kara Francis of Roaring Brook Twp., again raised the drop box issue, asking the board to permanently stop using them or, at a minimum, place only one drop box at the county government center in downtown Scranton. Francis raised concerns about the costs associated with using the drop boxes; she didn’t explicitly raise security or fraud-related concerns that dominated debate over the drop boxes last year.
Lackawanna County Elections Director Beth Hopkins said at the time — and reiterated this week — that she was not aware of any credible cases of voter fraud or other inappropriate conduct involving the county’s drop boxes in the years they’ve been used.
“The county is furious with the 33% tax increase, they’re furious with the nontransparency in the reassessment, and I’m asking that we do not waste any money on drop boxes again,” Francis said at Monday’s election board meeting. “The cost associated with them cannot possibly justify them.”
The election board currently consists of Gaughan, Chermak and county Judge Terrence R. Nealon, who replaced McGloin on the board after McGloin resigned from office in late February.
“I respect your position on the issue,” Gaughan told Francis. “I’ve been on the record (that) I think the drop boxes are a good thing. I think it promotes people getting out and voting in a different way, and I think we should do everything in our power to expand access to voting.”
Gaughan said he wouldn’t support a motion to prevent the use of drop boxes — a motion Chermak made unsuccessfully in the fall and made again this week.
“I would make a motion to eliminate drop boxes,” Chermak said at the meeting. “I’ve done it in the past. I will put it out as a motion today to remove drop boxes. We’ll see if I get a response.”
Neither Gaughan nor Nealon seconded the motion. Chermak later said he hadn’t intended to raise the drop box issue again before Francis brought it up at the meeting.
As in the past, all county drop boxes will be under 24/7 video surveillance and subject to strict chain-of-custody requirements, with ballots collected daily by a member of the county’s voter registration staff accompanied by a deputy sheriff.
County Solicitor Donald Frederickson, who also serves as solicitor for the election board, addressed Francis’ cost concerns in a phone interview Thursday.
“The way we’re looking at it there is no cost to the county, because we’re using county employees that are on the payroll, they’re not getting overtime, they’re doing it during business hours so whether they are mopping the floor or delivering a box it’s the same amount of money,” Frederickson said. He added the cost of gas to transport employees to and from the drop boxes is minimal.
The cost issue notwithstanding, Nealon noted near the close of Monday’s election board meeting that one could hypothetically collect the mail-in ballot of every person in the government center who filled one out, place a stamp on all of them and deposit them into a U.S. Postal Service mailbox without breaking any law.
“But if I was leaving here and Chris (Chermak) said to me ‘will you drop my mail-in ballot in the box downstairs for me’ … and I did that, I’d be in violation of the law,” Nealon continued. “It’s intriguing to me as to how the use of a stamp seems to change the whole dynamic of that issue.”
The county plans to place the six drop boxes it will deploy for the primary at their various locations Friday, Hopkins said. They’ll be located at the Moosic, Dickson City, Clarks Summit and Roaring Brook Twp. municipal buildings, the county government center and the Fallbrook Senior Community Center in Carbondale.
The government center drop box will remain available until 8 p.m. on May 20, the date of the primary. All the other drop boxes will be available until noon May 16.