Lebanon County residents will no longer be able to deliver their mail-in election ballots to a secure drop box located outside the county municipal building in Lebanon, which had been available in the past seven elections since its introduction for the 2020 general election.
By a 2-1 vote along party lines on Thursday, Jan. 18, Lebanon County Commissioners agreed to end the use of the drop box to collect mail-in election ballots.
County elections director Sean Drasher shared statistics indicating the drop box had been used by upwards of 35% of voters who submitted mail-in election ballots and projections that up to 4,500 ballots had been expected through the drop box for the 2024 primary.
The vote came after a lengthy discussion involving commissioners and community members in attendance during the board’s biweekly meeting. The vote was taken by the county Election Board, which consists of the three commissioners, with Commissioner Mike Kuhn serving as the Election Board’s chairman.
Republican commissioners Kuhn and Robert Phillips voted to eliminate the drop box, which sat at the base of the steps to the main public entrance at the rear of the county building, as a way to collect mail-in election ballots.
The box permitted voters to deposit their mail-in ballot in a secure location during regular business hours (or up to 8 p.m. on election days) without having to deliver it to the elections office on the second floor of the county building.
Read More: Lebanon County Commissioners debate mail-in box accessibility
“This has been probably the No. 1 source of suspicion for people,” said Phillips. “Once somebody approaches that box and puts a ballot in it, there’s really no way – we’re not monitoring (it). You may say we have security inside but people inside are not watching and really can’t detect whether somebody puts more than one ballot in.”
In addition to a camera installed on the drop box itself, the drop box has also been monitored by sheriff’s deputies stationed at the county building entrance.
Phillips said an inability to detect whether somebody puts more than one ballot in was problematic for him.
“Once that transaction happens, you have no idea who did it and it mixes with everything else in there, there’s no way of following up,” he said. “People talk about integrity in voting and trying to make it fair and honest, one vote per person and all those things. This is a symbol of a potential problem that you can’t control. You are counting on people walking up to the box and doing what they are supposed to do and putting in one ballot, but there is no way to prove that they haven’t put in more than one (ballot). That’s the main complaint I get: the security of it.”
Phillips conceded that commissioners had attempted to make it more secure by adding video cameras and signs, but added there is a “gap between that and being a fraud-free experience.”
There has been no reported allegation of fraud or misuse of the drop box since it was first put into use for 2020 general election.
Kuhn agreed with Phillips.
While Kuhn felt better about cameras being installed to monitor the drop box, he said the more he thought about it the less he liked it. He said while deposits are visible on camera, once a ballot is in the box there’s no way to know who may be violating state law by depositing more than one ballot at a time.
It is generally speaking illegal in Pennsylvania to have someone else return your ballot, although it was noted during the meeting that there is an exemption for having another person drop off a ballot when meeting certain disability circumstances, which require a form (PDF) to be included with the ballot identifying the person dropping it off.
Democratic commissioner Jo Ellen Litz voted against the box’s removal.
Litz countered her colleagues’ comments by stating that the cameras, signage, and educational efforts being conducted by the county makes the mail-in drop box more secure than ballots being deposited and mailed through the U.S. Postal Service.
“I really feel this drop box is the best situation for our voters, the safest, the most comprehensive, and saving our staff wear and tell as well as (wear and tear on) the building,” said Litz.
Neither Phillips nor Kuhn made any comparison between the security of voters placing ballots in the county’s drop box and the security of mail-in ballots being placed by voters into USPS mailboxes located throughout Lebanon County.
Sean Drasher, county elections director, said he is aware that there is a political as well as an operational side to this discussion.
“From the ops side, our drop box is right outside our door here (at the county building) and particularly right outside of the (sheriff) security (station),” said Drasher. “We have a little more than 3,000 people dropping ballots into the drop box out of about 8,000.”
Kuhn told Drasher that he believes a majority of the people have more confidence delivering their mail-in election ballot than sending it through the postal system.
“We have people who do not have a lot of confidence in the postal system,” said Drasher. “Unfortunately, the experience of the last year has not reassured anyone with ballots going out so slowly.”
Drasher added that his office received back mail-in ballots as undeliverable that had been mailed to voters requesting one during 2023’s municipal election. While those ballots were addressed correctly, they were returned to his office, which delayed delivery and frustrated mail-in voters.
“They go out and come back to us and it could be two-weeks turnaround,” said Drasher. “We only have about five weeks for the election and then we’re calling the voter and trying to figure out why this bounced back. It’s the correct address and usually we drop it in the mail and then it goes through.”
Drasher noted that while his office has worked with the postal service to solve these problems, he also said they still exist.
“The drop box is the way they can drop that off and eliminate half of the (mailing) equation,” he added. “From my ops side of the conversation, by having it outside the secure check-in, somebody can get out of their car, drop off their ballot and not have to come up through security and get in line. We are expecting down-the-hall lines starting in about four, well, five weeks. At that point, people that would be coming in to drop off their ballots will be getting in a 45-minute line outside my office. I need to figure out some way to take care of that.”
Drasher said temporary staff could potentially work the hallway, walking up and down the line and taking ballots from voters who are there just to drop theirs off at the county building. Another suggestion was to possibly have an indoor drop box.
“There are ways that we can try and compromise and figure this out if we have to, but the ballot box is the way it eliminates that issue,” said Drasher prior to the vote. “I am expecting 4,000, 4,500 ballots to go drop box in this spring (primary) election.”
Litz cited issues with potential liability from slips and falls inside the county building from voters who might have to walk on wet floors and overuse of the county’s elevator system to reach the second floor.
“The list goes on and on and why force them to come into the office when our drop box fulfills all of these wonderful missing pieces when it comes to USPS versus coming into the building,” said Litz. “Finally, our staff is overwhelmed already. …To eliminate our drop box will just add multiple levels of complications to this election that we don’t need. I truly believe in our drop box.”
Drasher said several counties have successfully eliminated their drop boxes, noting that successful in this case means they aren’t currently in court being sued over their removal.
“I was very shocked that York has eliminated theirs, Lancaster County has eliminated theirs, (while) other counties have expanded theirs,” said Drasher. “For someone reading this story who may not know, we only have a single drop box and it is right outside the courthouse door.”
County resident Pam Tricamo, who attends the meetings on a regular basis but usually doesn’t comment, did so about this issue.
“You are talking about waiting in line for 45 minutes, but a handicapped person takes them five minutes to pull in and drop off their ballot,” said Tricamo. “If you eliminate that, handicapped people will have to go down the ramp – if they know the ramp exists – through the building and go to the elevator to go upstairs. You are taking a five-minute process and turning it into a half-hour process for people who already are having difficulties getting around.”
How mail-in ballots will be delivered is unknown at this time since no solutions were offered during the meeting and the vote was made without a plan in place to accept mail-in ballots from voters.
In other election-related news, the Election Board voted to approve several capital improvement projects. All of the purchases come at no cost to county taxpayers since all purchases fall under Election Integrity Grant funds made possible through passage of Act 88 in 2022 in the Pennsylvania Legislature.
The board voted 2-1 to approve the purchase of electronic poll books for voter sign-in at voting precincts following a trial run at 12 of the county’s 60 precincts at last November’s municipal election.
Poll workers use electronic poll books to check in voters. They typically are a tablet or laptop computer that accesses an electronic list of registered voters with names, addresses and precinct information.
Litz voted against purchasing the electronic signature technology, citing security concerns, while Phillips and Kuhn approved the request.
Drasher said the electronic poll books will never come into contact with the county’s computerized voter system and added that weeks of manual labor to transfer data from paper books was minimized to mere minutes when done electronically.
Read More:
- Certain county precincts will use E-poll books in Tuesday’s election
- County election board approves trial run of e-poll books at select local precincts
“It was a massive change,” said Drasher. “Two weeks, seven hours a day of manually entering data took me 15 minutes to do it. That’s massive. There was no human error and it was click, click, click, and we were done.”
Drasher recommended poll book vendor KNOWiNK from the two that participated in the trial run last fall. The election board authorized Drasher’s recommendation to purchase 125 poll books – two per each precinct, with the other five to serve as emergency back-up units – at a cost of $231,500.
Two other purchases include personnel management software to manage poll workers and campaign finance tracking software to collect data from candidates running for county or municipal office positions.
EasyVote Solutions Inc. of Woodstock, Georgia, is the vendor selected to supply both software packages. The personnel management software costs $5,000 for the software and $1,000 for training, for a total cost of $6,000. The campaign finance software costs $3,000 with an additional $1,000 fee for implementation/training.
“This allows candidates to file paperwork online,” said Drasher. “You will get emails informing you that your campaign finance paperwork is due in however many days we set it (to send the notification).”
Voter registration was also given permission to purchase an additional high volume Election Day letter opener at a cost of $10,000 for the hardware and an additional $500 for the installation fee. Quadient, which is based in Bagneux, France, was selected as the vendor for this capital improvement project.
“We have people sitting idle much of the time because we can’t open mail fast enough and, by law, we can’t open it before 7 a.m., so we can’t prep ahead of time,” said Drasher, who also noted his office tripled the number of canvassers during the last election to work on Election Day.
Drasher also presented a number of important upcoming dates, including:
- March 14: Target mail-in ballot delivery
- April 8: Last day to register to vote in the primary election
- April 16: Deadline to apply for a mail-in or civilian absentee ballot
- April 23: Last day for the board of elections to receive mail-in and civilian absentee ballots (must be received by 8 p.m.)
- April 23: Pennsylvania Primary Election
In other county business, commissioners voted to:
- Certify matching county funds in the amount of $1.09 million for the purchase of conservation easements as part of the county’s farmland preservation program. It was noted that this figure was higher than most years thanks to a $765,000 donation from the estate of Esther Mae Martin in 2023.
Read More: Three local nonprofit organizations to receive major gifts through local estate - Approve two hotel tax grant fund applications. The Pennsylvania Gourd Society will receive $5,700 of a projected $7,600 cost for the Pennsylvania Gourd Festival at the Lebanon Valley Expo Center from June 13 to 15. St. James Players were granted $4,687.50 for the Fairy Festival on April 27-28 at Lebanon Valley Mall. The entire $5,000 grant request was not approved since organizations must meet a 25 percent matching fund requirement. Total project cost for the event is listed as $6,250.
- Reappoint Allen Freed, Brenda Phillips and Patrick Kerwin to the Lebanon Transit Board for three-year terms through Jan. 31, 2027. Their terms were set to expire on Jan. 31.
- Reappoint Donna Williams, Luz Rosario, Kristina Slick, and Amy Custer to the advisory board of Children & Youth Services for three-year terms through Dec. 31, 2026. It was noted that Judith Weimer was resigning from the same advisory board, and the commissioners did not need to vote to accept that resignation.
- Grant a real estate tax exemption for one fully disabled veteran.
- Approve the minutes of their Jan. 4 meeting, the treasurer’s report and various personnel transactions. As part of personnel transactions, the county hired 11 full-time correctional officers for Lebanon County Correction Facility at a rate of $22.71 per hour. LebTown was told after the meeting that six full-time correctional officer positions remain vacant at LCCF.
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