By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com

In this May 28, 2020, Associated Press file photo a voter casts her mail-in ballot at in a drop box in West Chester, Pa., prior to that year’s primary election. For the second day in a row, Luzerne County Election Director Michael Susek has reported an issue with mail ballots to the county Election Board, according to an email sent shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday.

For the second day in a row, Luzerne County Election Director Michael Susek has reported an issue with mail ballots to the county Election Board, according to an email sent shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday.

A synopsis of Susek’s account:

Election Bureau administrative assistant Andrea Hill was on the first floor of the county’s Penn Place Building Thursday when a voter approached her with two “naked ballots.” That term refers to mail ballots not inside an inner secrecy envelope as required for them to be counted.

Hill started explaining that he cannot return the ballot of another person unless that other person is disabled and has completed a state-mandated authorization form specifying someone would be delivering on on his or her behalf. Hill also indicated naked ballots cannot be counted.

The man tore up both ballots and threw them in a lobby garbage can.

Susek said he retrieved the torn ballots from the garbage and stored them in a labeled plastic bag in the election bureau’s storage room on the second floor in the building.

“I didn’t want to chance any torn up ballot being found and misconstrued as staff destroying ballots,” Susek wrote.

He inquired about the possibility of referring the matter to the District Attorney’s Office because the man destroyed another voter’s ballot.

Will be referred to DA

Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams said Thursday the incident will be referred to the District Attorney’s Office.

The night before, the election board said it has referred another case to the District Attorney’s Office that occurred Wednesday afternoon. In that matter, Susek and an employee had just loaded ballots from the Penn Place drop box into a transfer bag when a woman approached with four ballots.

When Susek asked if she had an authorization form for the other three ballots, she said she was unaware of the form and did not have time to go upstairs to retrieve one. He told her she could still drop off her own ballot, using the words “your ballot,” and said the woman proceeded to drop all four ballots in the still-unzippered transfer bag and departed.

Susek said he immediately segregated those four ballots in the ballot storage room and requested video footage.

In another case stemming from the November general election, the election board had reviewed drop box surveillance recordings to investigate a complaint about a woman, reportedly from a nursing home, who had deposited or attempted to deposit multiple ballots at Penn Place, officials have said. That matter was referred to the county District Attorney’s Office and remains under investigation.

Williams said she agrees with board colleagues that more public education is needed on mail ballot voting. Stepping up information on social media is an option the board will discuss, she said.

She does not believe the three cases warrant elimination of drop boxes, saying that would disenfranchise the many voters properly utilizing the boxes. Williams reiterated 5,400 county voters used drop boxes in the November general election.

Election Board member Alyssa Fusaro said Thursday afternoon she has requested an emergency board meeting to discuss options for securing the drop boxes in light of another incident.

Fusaro’s email, copied to council, said she believes a meeting is warranted in light of the third mail ballot incident to determine the safety and security of the drop boxes, discuss the integrity and retention of surveillance video at all drop box locations and possible monitoring of surveillance video moving forward.

“These incidents have now posed a threat to our election security. We cannot, as a board, sit idly by and assume that our public is educated or just ‘hope’ that the drop boxes are used properly and legally. It is up to us as the Luzerne County Board of Elections to ensure that our election process is safe, secure, fair and equitable for all residents of Luzerne County, and we have failed to do so,” she wrote.

Fusaro said an emergency meeting would “ease the concerns of the voters about the security of the drop boxes.”

“Now, more than ever, we need to let the public know that we care and that we will fight for the integrity of our process as well as the rights to have each legal vote count and not be cancelled by the illegal votes being cast,” she wrote.