Absentee and mail-in ballots for the Presidential Election should be delivered to Lebanon County voters who requested them beginning this week.
Sean Drasher, director of Voter Registration/Elections, told Lebanon County Commissioners the news during their regular meeting Thursday Oct. 3 after a public commenter asked about the mailing status of absentee and mail-in ballots. The expected delivery date had been announced on Sept. 19 during a county election board meeting, but the ballots were delayed in getting into the mail.
Read More: Mail-in ballots for Lebanon County voters expected to ship by Oct. 1
Near the end of the Oct. 3 meeting, Drasher provided an update on several matters related to the upcoming election Tuesday, Nov. 5, including why the absentee and mail-in ballots had not been mailed to voters.
Ballots “will be in the mail tomorrow morning,” Drasher said Thursday. “We’re still on schedule; Oct. 1 was just a self-imposed (deadline).”
Lebanon resident Pam Tricamo said she enquired about the ballots during public comment because community members have been asking her about a non-county mailing that was sent by an organization instructing voters how to fill out mailed ballots.
She said people have read that Lancaster County has distributed their ballots, so local residents are wondering about the status of theirs.
Drasher said an outside group “unhelpfully” sent postcards in late-September to voters across the state with mailing instructions. Commission chairman Bob Phillips noted the mailing was not generated by Drasher’s department.
“It’s a third-party, special-interest group,” Drasher replied. “We’ve been getting calls constantly about it.”
Drasher reported that the county has received 13,204 requests for either absentee or mail-in ballots for the November election. Oct. 21 is the last day to register to vote in the November election, and Oct. 29 is the final day to apply for a mail-in or a civilian absentee ballot.
Additionally, all mail-in and civilian absentee ballots must be returned to the county board of elections by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Drasher also informed commissioners that early voting began Thursday. The three Lebanon County Commissioners are elections board members except in years when they seek re-election.
“We already have about 40 (completed) ballots back in-house,” added Drasher. “Early voting is under way and we’re open for business, so anybody can stop in.”
He asked voters who have requested a mail-in ballot to be patient and wait for theirs to be delivered instead of coming to the elections office to vote early, although registered voters who would like to vote early may do so by visiting the county elections office on the second floor of the municipal building during regular business hours, which are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Drasher said in-person early voting will be open during the county’s regular business hours through Oct. 29. “The last week (before the election) is the cut-off (date),” said Drasher. “Based on previous history and in other counties too, we expect, starting next week, really long lines.”
Read More: Local voters return mail-in, absentee ballots on 1st day of new satellite office
Drasher told commissioners the mail-in ballot satellite office, which was used for the first time during the Primary Election, is slated to open on Oct. 7 for voters to drop off their individual ballot to that secure location.
That booth is open during regular county business hours and located in the parking lot to the rear of the county municipal building at 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon. On Election Day, the drop-off office will be open the same hours as voting precincts (7 a.m. to 8 p.m.).
In other election news, Drasher told the commissioners the number of student poll workers who will work this election cycle at voter precincts has tripled to an all-time high. He told LebTown in an email that this year’s election will have about 40 student poll workers.
Drasher previously told LebTown he plans to use students from Cedar Crest, Lebanon and Palmyra high schools and New Covenant Christian School as “extras” on Election Day in addition to the usual complement of election workers. Lebanon County has 60 voting precincts.
“We’re fully staffed for all of the polling places,” he noted. “We’re sending letters out now to the canvassers just as a reminder. We already have a full canvassing staff, but that reminder usually generates some cancellations. … Yeah, we’re doing very well with staffing.”
Drasher said one or two additional workers in his office would be great. He was informed that commissioners had earlier approved temporary overtime hours that apply to full-time staff in voter registration, where employees normally work 35-hour work weeks.
The terms for this approved request are up to a maximum of 15 additional hours per week, with the first five hours at regular pay and overtime hours worked beyond 40 to be paid at time and a half, up to a maximum of 50 hours per week. This unanimously approved request is effective Oct. 7 through Nov. 15.
In non-election-related action, commissioners continued to scrutinize hotel tax grant requests since the fund began to run low in recent months and the commissioners formally changed program guidelines.
Phillips asked fellow commissioners Mike Kuhn and Jo Ellen Litz how they wanted to proceed in considering the three old grant requests that had been tabled during past meetings and two new applications that were submitted for consideration.
Litz said she preferred to table the applications to avoid depleting the fund, especially since income from the program will be down over the winter months due to fewer hotel stays in the Lebanon Valley.
“I don’t think it is something we can afford to do right now,” said Litz.
Phillips said they could still spend a portion of the balance without completely depleting the fund, adding many of the current applications have a timeliness issue.
“We don’t have to spend 36, we could spend 5 or 10,” said Phillips. “Again, we don’t have to exhaust anything but I think we have to get rid of the ones before we did our guideline revisions and get those cleaned out or consider them and then there’s one for Saturday that I think should also be considered.”
County administrator Jamie Wolgemuth announced the current hotel tax grant fund balance was $36,567, which was up from $10,957 as announced on Sept. 19.
LebTown recently analyzed hotel tax grant recipients from 2017 through 2023 following a Right-to-Know request and learned the county had overspent its share of those grant requests in four of the past seven years.
Kuhn said he preferred to go through the applications, and commissioners then considered their merits. One criteria concerns putting “heads in beds” to help continue to perpetuate the fund.
Three of the five applications were approved by a 2-1 vote, with Litz voting no. Receiving funding are:
- Motorama Productions Inc., Dragfest – an indoor drag racing car, truck and bike show, $100,000 budget, $7,500 requested, amended to $5,000, with $5,000 approved.
- Penn State Cooperative Extension, Penn State Crop Conference Day – $6,250 budget, $5000 requested, $1,500 approved.
- Susquehanna Valley Showdown – lamb, goat, swine and showmanship skill contest, $41,335 budget, $5,000 requested, $5,000 approved.
All three applications had been tabled several times at past commissioner meetings.
The two new applications who received funding via unanimous votes of commissioners are:
- Sisters’ Hope Foundation – ALSP Run N’ Roll 5K for the Cure, $7,000 budget, $4,000 requested. Litz made a motion to fund $1,600 for this event because of the organizational requirement that they provide a 25 percent match. Wolgemuth noted that the 25 percent match from the foundation is actually $1,800 and not the amount the county would award, which is up to 75 percent of the funding request, capped at a maximum of $5,000. Kuhn said he was inclined to provide the full amount of $4,000 given that half (100) of the total attendees for this event to be held for the first time in Lebanon County are expected to be out-of-state guests. Commissioners voted to provide the full funding request of $4,000.
- Drunken Smithy LLC – Spooktober Fest 2024, $5,000 budget, $2,500 requested, $2,500 provided.
In other business, commissioners unanimously voted – unless otherwise noted – to:
- Approve a LERTA revision for about five acres at Lebanon Business Park. The vote on this item was 2-1 with Litz voting against the proposal, stating that she has publicly taken a stand to not approve new LERTA requests.
- Agree to sign a service contract for maintenance of emergency services handheld radios with B. Moyer Radio Communications, a Lebanon-based company. The annual contract totals $39,600 and has an additional stipulation for an hourly rate of $110 per hour for on-demand service during regular business hours and $165 per hour for weekday evening, holiday and weekend service calls.
- Enter into a four-year rental agreement with Cleona Borough for offices for Magisterial District Justice John W. Ditzler totaling $1,100 per month from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2025. Rental payments increase by $25 per every calendar year thereafter through 2028.
- Appoint Rick Scott to represent the business sector on the South-Central Workforce Development board. Scott, the executive director of Volunteers in Medicine, will be part of a board that represents workforce development in Lebanon, Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Juniata, Perry and York counties.
- As part of the county treasurer’s report, three separate October debit payments were approved. Those approvals were to transfer $15,724.66 from the general fund to the general obligation bond, series A of 2016 bank loan held in Fulton Financial to pay principal and interest. The second totaled $146,488.82 for a general bond obligation, Series of 2017, and $1,744,036.05 for a general obligation bond, Series of 2021. All three payments are to Fulton Financial and are due by Oct. 15.
- Grant real estate exemptions for five fully disabled veterans or their families.
- Sign a memorandum of understanding with Teamsters Local Union #429 to reclassify a part-time clerk union position within the Clerk of Courts office to a full-time general clerks C position and assigned a Grade 4 on the union chart, effective Oct. 7.
- Approve the minutes of their Sept. 19 meeting, workshop on Sept. 25 and executive session on Oct. 2 to discuss personnel matters.
Lebanon County Commissioners meet at 9:30 a.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month in Room 207 of the county municipal building at 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon. Public workshops are held on an as-needed basis on Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. at the same location. Workshop sessions are announced at least 24 hours in advance at the county’s website.
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