WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Luzerne County began installing ballot drop boxes Monday after weeks of controversy.
Workers bolted one to the ground at the Penn Place Building in Wilkes-Barre, in view of a surveillance camera and county sheriff's deputies manning a metal detector station.
Officials said another will go up at the Broad Street Business Exchange in Hazleton. They were awaiting permission from two locations — Misericordia University in Dallas and Wright Manor in Mountain Top — to set up the remaining two.
This all follows legal wrangling between the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the county manager, Romilda Crocamo, who initially denied their deployment by citing security and financial concerns. The county Board of Elections and Registration last voted in February to approve the drop boxes. The board will take another vote Wednesday.
Crocamo reversed course Friday after the state attorney general advised she do so, but Monday's hearing remained scheduled until both sides agreed in court that Crocamo deploy the drop boxes.
Amid the sound of a power drill bolting the drop box into the group, Crocamo said the security concerns she had did not dissipate.
"I still have serious concerns about the security and safety of the drop boxes, although I do believe Penn Place, with our sheriff's located here, is really a step up in security," she said.
According to a stipulation signed by both sides, Crocamo will not remove the drop boxes during the election, but she denies she is under legal obligation to deploy them. The agreement also does not preclude law enforcement officials from temporarily halting their use if public safety was at stake.
That question of who had ultimate authority over their deployment — board of manager — was at the heart of an hearing in the ACLU's lawsuit that was made moot by the signed stipulation and left unaddressed.
"As the conscientious, responsible public servant she strives to be, Ms. Crocamo, with the advice from the Pennsylvania Attorney General has chosen to avoid, at least for now, a sideshow over the respective powers of the County Executive and, Board of Elections and Registration, which is wholly made of volunteers and with no practical wherewithal to implement its choices," said Crocamo's attorney, Mark Cedrone.
Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said the case against Crocamo remains "live" because she she maintains she has authority over board on the drop box issue.
"We need the lines of authority clarified and I’m hopeful the court will agree to decide the question," Walczak said. "Without that, this could happen again. "
The election board is next scheduled to meet Wednesday. According to the agenda, they'll vote on a motion to eliminate drop boxes in the county. Should the motion fail, they'll next take a vote to place security guards or sheriff's deputies at the site of each drop box and pay for their time using funds from the county's Election Integrity Grant.
Gene Ziemba, the chair of the county Republican Party, said in a statement Monday he was disappointed by Crocamo's change of course.
"I question the motives of the people that want them, and just because that group states they are safe and secure does not mean they are safe and secure," he said.
As part of updated security measures and to increase transparency, Luzerne County now has a live camera in the secure room where election ballots are kept.
You can watch the livestream below or on the county election bureau site.