LebTown recently followed up with the Lebanon County Commissioners to discuss their decision to shutter the mail-in ballot drop box starting with the 2024 election cycle.
Last week, LebTown interviewed all three commissioners separately via telephone following a 2-1 vote at their Jan. 18 meeting to stop using the drop box, which had been in place since the 2020 general election. Delivering mail ballots to the county’s drop box during regular business hours had been an option for voters to get their ballot to the county’s election’s office for the previous seven consecutive elections.
At the Jan. 18 meeting, Republican commissioners Mike Kuhn and Bob Phillips voted to end its use while Democratic Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz voted for the drop box system to remain intact.
Both Republicans cited security concerns and wanting to ensure election integrity; however, neither identified any instances of suspected voter fraud occurring during an election in Lebanon County.
Litz said the drop box was the most secure way for voters to return their mail ballots to election officials.
Read More: Kuhn & Phillips nix secure mail-in ballot drop box at county building entrance
Kuhn said he believed both the drop box and mail box have their downsides, and that voting in-person was the best option.
“There is no guarantee that if someone puts something in the mail that it won’t get lost or not delivered,” said Kuhn. “People don’t trust the postal system, especially if they have to place their ballot within the last few days because they are not guaranteed it will get to the courthouse on time.”
Phillips said there is plenty of time for voters to return their individual mail-in ballots via mail. (State law requires a voter to place their own ballot in the mail or in a drop box except where a disability prevents that, in which case a separate signed form is required to be submitted with the ballot.)
“The reality is a huge percentage of the mail ballots go out six weeks ahead of the election,” said Phillips. “For people who are saying, ‘Well, it is more convenient for me to use the drop box,’ I have to weigh convenience against the safety and security of the election. That’s one area I felt was vulnerable and that I could actually have an impact on improving by eliminating that box.”
Litz said the drop box should still be available to registered voters since people distrust the USPS for delivery delays.
She cited instances of voters who know the mail takes a week to get delivered but due to circumstances out of their control, have to vote via mail-in ballot within a week of an election. All mail-in ballots must be in the hands of election officials by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be valid.
Litz disagreed with her colleague’s assessments about the security of the drop box, stating the county’s drop box is more secure than postal boxes.
“It’s not less secure, it is more secure,” said Litz. “There are three cameras focused on it. There’s a guard inside the glass enclosure (county building). Also, it is locked at night and not open when we’re not open.”
Litz was referring to the sheriff’s deputies who provide security at the entrance to the county building.
However, Lebanon County Sheriff Jeffrie Marley Jr. told LebTown that monitoring the drop box is not part of his department’s mission.
“It is not a part of their official duties,” said Marley. “When they are at the door, it is their job to assist with building security as well as provide a uniformed presence to deter. The main deterrent at that box was the signage and the video surveillance. As for the sheriff’s office, we do not specifically have someone assigned to watch that box.”
As of the 2020 general election, sheriff’s deputies were monitoring the drop box, according to comments at the time by former county elections director Michael Anderson to the commissioners. It is not clear when or why that policy was changed.
Litz amended a portion of her statement after LebTown informed her that Marley said sheriff’s deputies are not responsible for monitoring the drop box.
In amending her statement, Litz noted that the drop box was first used at the building’s entrance under a prior sheriff’s administration.
Marley said neither Phillips nor Kuhn have expressed to him any security concerns surrounding the drop box. He said he was elected sheriff after the box was installed at the rear entrance of the courthouse on 8th Street, which serves as the main public entrance.
LebTown asked the commissioners whether USPS mailboxes are more secure than the county’s drop box.
“It’s not more secure. I would say it (a postal box) was less secure,” said Kuhn, who is also the chairman of the county’s election board. All three commissioners serve on the elections board except during the year of a municipal election. “Someone could tamper with it (the mailbox). If they did that, they would be violating federal law.” (The casting of ballots known to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under Pennsylvania law is also covered by federal elections law.)
“I don’t know that I’ve said it is,” said Phillips of whether USPS mailboxes are more secure than the county’s drop box. “All I am saying is, the drop box at the county building is not a secure box and that people have admitted to me that they have put more than one (ballot) in. It’s just one of those things that if the law says that we have to use the U.S. post office for mail ballots, then that’s the alternative. … That’s the operative word, it’s a mail ballot, it’s not a drop box ballot, it is not a walk-in ballot.”
No excuses mail-in ballots were put into law by the Pennsylvania legislature in 2019 with the passage of Act 77. The law specifies that ballots must be received in the office of county boards of elections no later than eight o’clock P.M. on the day of the primary or election and does not require ballots to be mailed.
The law also does not require counties to have a drop box for the return of mail ballots.
LebTown inquired about which method – drop box or post box – was more reliable to ensure 100 percent of mail-in ballots reach the election office in time to be counted.
“I guess when people use the mail versus when they bring it to the drop box. The people using the mailbox have plenty of time even in a worse-case scenario – you have six weeks to prepare and get it in,” said Phillips.
He added there are other options as well.
“If you don’t feel you are comfortable with the post office, you have 60 precincts in Lebanon County and you go to your precinct and vote there. That is the traditional way to vote, and that way is certainly safer and more secure,” said Phillips. “I don’t know what the alternative is since people are looking for a more convenient way of using a mail ballot. But, again, the operative word is mail.”
Kuhn echoed a similar sentiment.
“I think the number one way is to get to the polling place,” said Kuhn. “The second way is to take your ballot to the voter registration office itself.”
There had been a public comment at the Jan. 18 meeting about making it inconvenient for disabled people to get their ballot delivered to the voter registration office, which is located on the second floor of the county building, by removing the drop box.
Phillips said disabled individuals have the postal service to deliver their ballot, or if they choose to have someone deposit it in a mail box or deliver it to the election office for them, then a form can be filed with their mail ballot designating that appointee.
After the municipal election last fall, voter registration/elections department director Sean Drasher told LebTown that of the 6,771 total mail ballots returned for the 2023 municipal election, 25 to 27 percent were via the drop box.
Of those ballots returned by the drop box, Republican voters outnumbered Democrat voters by a 2-1 margin. (Last week, Litz flipped that fact and erroneously provided some media outlets the wrong information. She informed LebTown without being prompted that she had mixed up the figures once it had been pointed out to her prior to her interview with LebTown.)
Drasher added that he had informed the commissioners of this information and the percentages had been fairly consistent for all elections since his hiring in December 2021.
For the 2023 municipal election, Democrats returned a total of 3,950 total mail-in ballots, compared to 2,218 ballots returned by Republicans and 629 ballots by independents.
Pennsylvania Republicans, including state Rep. Russ Diamond locally and state Republican committee chair Lawrence Tabas, have called for the GOP to bring mail-in ballots into their strategy.
“The winning strategy is not convincing in-person voters to vote by mail, but to cultivate mail-in votes from Republican voters who might not otherwise show up on Election Day,” said Diamond in an op-ed submitted to LebTown last year.
Read More: Pennsylvania Republicans need a 3-point game
All three commissioners were in agreement that those statistics do not sway their opinions on the drop box. The two Republicans said security was paramount while Litz said she believes the drop box is the most secure way for a mail ballot to come to election officials.
While the drop box may not be used for the 2024 primary election, there is the possibility that another one may take its place for the 2024 Presidential election cycle.
When asked if he would vote for a new drop box, Phillips replied that he said three times that it is a mail ballot.
Kuhn, on the other hand, is open to having a discussion concerning ways to create a more secure drop box that is also convenient for voters. He noted that he had informed county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth that they need to have a conversation about this issue and informed LebTown that this is “not the final nail in this coffin.”
The target delivery date of mail-in ballots to voters who request them from the county’s election office is Thursday, March 14. All mail ballots must be returned when the polls close on Pennsylvania’s Primary Election by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23.
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Questions about this story? Suggestions for a future LebTown article? Reach our newsroom using this contact form and we’ll do our best to get back to you.
Free news isn’t cheap. If you value the journalism LebTown provides to the community, then help us make it sustainable by becoming a champion of local news. You can unlock additional coverage for the community by supporting our work with a one-time contribution, or joining as a monthly or annual member. You can cancel anytime.
