Poll monitors in Hazleton during the Nov. 6 election observed "significant problems" involving Spanish-speaking voters and provisional ballots, said Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania.
"There were communication problems, misunderstandings with poll workers and voters getting turned away," Mr. Kauffman said.
Poll workers in Hazleton also refused to provide provisional ballots to people prevented from voting, Mr. Kauffman said. A provisional ballot is issued when there's a problem verifying the status of a registered voter and can be counted later if voter registration is verified.
The number of provisional ballots statewide and countywide increased in the last election, compared to the last general election with the U.S. presidency on the ballot in 2008. The statewide total increased from 32,898 to 48,741.
About 200 provisional ballots were cast in the general election in Lackawanna County, a number Director of Elections Marion Medalis said would have been much higher if voters were required to show photo identification.
In Luzerne County, the number of provisional ballots increased from 99 to 120, according to the state. But the county board of elections reviewed 330 provisional ballots from November, said county Director of Elections Marisa Crispell, who added she is looking into the discrepancy.
About 20 voters went to President Barack Obama's campaign office in Hazleton, claiming they had been prevented from voting, Luzerne County Councilwoman Elaine Maddon Curry said. County council plans to review problems from the last election at a meeting Feb. 12.
Polling locations in Hazleton's eighth and 10th wards did not have areas "for voters to fill out provisional ballots in privacy," and poll workers there would not provide provisional ballots without permission from the elections bureau, Mr. Kauffman said.
Ms. Crispell said the bureau instructed poll workers to get permission because office personnel in Wilkes-Barre had to first check to verify registration status. Voters were not supposed to get provisional ballots if they were registered at another precinct in the county or state, she said.
But some poll workers in the county did distribute provisional ballots to voters registered in other precincts, and votes on those provisional ballots were not counted, she said.
"People were coming back, saying they were being denied their right to vote," Ms. Crispell said, explaining why some poll workers distributed provisional ballots without permission from the bureau.
On Nov. 9, the county board of elections reviewed 330 provisional ballots, counted 47 and rejected 283.
Intimidation at polls
Common Cause Pennsylvania, a nonpartisan citizens' lobby organization, had two monitors in Hazleton all day Nov. 6, Mr. Kauffman said. Ms. Crispell said she is not familiar with their observations and questioned what they saw because they were not allowed into polling locations.
"Were they able to get the full story? They had to be 10 feet away from the poll," Ms. Crispell said. "They talked to people walking away leaving, and they told people outside to ask for provisional ballots."
The bureau authorized poll watchers to be in polls, but each authorized watcher had to represent a campaign and be registered to vote in the county, Ms. Crispell said.
Mary-Ann Greanier, a volunteer for Common Cause from Plainville, Mass., was in Hazleton for the election.
"There are a lot of new voters who are not familiar with this system, not familiar with the English language. It's so disorienting," Ms. Greanier said in November during an interview with The Standard Speaker of Hazleton, a newspaper owned by Times-Tribune parent company Times-Shamrock Communications.
About 37 percent of Hazleton's population is Hispanic, according the U.S. Census Bureau. A Spanish interpreter was at every polling precinct in Hazleton, Ms. Crispell said.
Volunteer poll watcher Barbara O'Malley told the Lackawanna County Elections Board in November she witnessed several instances of minority-language voters encountering roadblocks as they tried to cast a ballot.
A poll worker at Hazleton's 10th Ward "seemed to be hostile to people seeking provisional ballots, loudly, publicly, and sternly questioning voters about their registration status," Mr. Kauffman said.
"This appeared to intimidate some voters," he added. "Ward 8 seemed less confrontational with voters, although they were not appropriately helpful - such as refusing to provide a pen to complete a provisional ballot, and then telling voters to go somewhere else to complete the ballot without instructing them where an appropriate place would be."
Ms. Crispell defended the poll workers, noting the election was an "extremely stressful day" because of high turnout. Turnout was 64.7 percent in Luzerne County and 64.8 percent statewide.
"They are doing a civil service for our voters," she said. "They deserve respect. They go through a lot. I feel for our poll workers. They were being intimidated."
Some voters and people at the polls were hostile with poll workers because they objected to the new state Voter ID law, Ms. Crispell said. Critics of the ID law claimed it was an attempt to suppress voter turnout.
Because of court rulings just before the election, registered voters did not have to show a photo ID to vote, but poll workers still had to ask for a photo ID.
The ID controversy created "a heightened awareness" of provisional ballots, which resulted in the increase in provisional ballots issued statewide and in Luzerne County, said Thomas Baldino, Ph.D., a Wilkes University political science professor and member of the county board of elections. Dr. Baldino added "first-time voters were not sure where to go" to vote Nov. 6.
The names of some newly registered voters were not listed in precinct books and supplemental reports for poll workers to review because of delays in processing registration applications. The deadline to register was Oct. 9, but applications still had to be processed.
The books were printed Oct. 19. Superstorm Sandy resulted in extensions for election deadlines and caused processing delays, Ms. Crispell said.
Poll workers were instructed to call the elections office in Wilkes-Barre when confronted with a person not listed as a registered voter. An elections employee in Wilkes-Barre could verify registration in the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors database.
But poll workers, many of whom had to use their own cellphones to call the office in Wilkes-Barre, became frustrated when calls were not answered. The office needed more telephone lines and computer terminals with access to the SURE database, Ms. Crispell said.
The bureau also was not able to adequately train poll workers for the Nov. 6 election because Tom Pizano unexpectedly retired as acting director of elections in September, said H. Jeremy Packard, chairman of the board of elections. The board has not had a public meeting since Nov. 1.
Because of an agreement between Luzerne and Wyoming counties, Ms. Crispell served as Luzerne County's interim director of elections in October and November while she still was a Wyoming County employee. Luzerne County Manager Robert Lawton hired Ms. Crispell as permanent director in December.
Contact the writer: mbuffer@citizensvoice.com DALLAS TWP. - A documentary produced by two Misericordia University professors shows polling-place problems that could have prevented the disabled from voting in November.
The university held a screening of the 15-minute video, "Vote," on campus Wednesday night. Melissa Sgroi, Ph.D., department chairwoman, and Dan Kimbrough, assistant professor, traveled to several polling places during the Nov. 6 election to see if polling places met Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
"We hope this video sheds light on barriers to voting for people with disabilities because this is a form of disenfranchisement that has not been widely reported or, to my knowledge, reported at all," Dr. Sgroi said.
The video shows polling places that were not accessible for wheelchairs, forced voters to use stairs and didn't provide parking by the disabled. Polling places also didn't have signs to help the disabled park or find accessible entrances. Polling places in the video were in Scranton, Dallas Twp. and Wilkes-Barre.
Luzerne County Director of Elections Marisa Crispell said she is working to make sure all polling places in the county meet ADA requirements for the May primary election. She said she was misinformed that the polling places were compliant when she started working in Luzerne County three weeks before the Nov. 6 election.
Ms. Crispin was a Wyoming County employee who temporarily worked as Luzerne County's interim director of elections in October and November and became the permanent director in Luzerne County in December.
She said she learned after the election that Luzerne County had purchased wheelchair ramps with federal grant money. But the ramps remained in storage and were not used in recent elections, she said.
H. Jeremy Packard, chairman of the county board of elections, attended the screening.
"We have a lot of work to on educating our polling personnel," Mr. Packard said. "And that requires some mandatory training sessions, which we have never had in recent memory. ⦠I can't wait to get the DVD and use it here in Luzerne County to have a better situation."
"And we will send you the follow-up in May," Dr. Sgroi replied.
State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, Wilkes-Barre, was interviewed in the documentary and attended the screening. He said state Legislature should allow early voting to give all voters more options. Early voting would allow voting on days prior to an election at alternate polling locations.
Contact the writer: mbuffer@citizensvoice.com