PLAINS TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU-TV) — The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the election process across the nation and our region.
County Election Bureau officials are taking steps to keep voters and poll workers safe from the coronavirus. Local election officials say there is no users manual when it comes to running an election during a global pandemic. But they insist they are doing everything they make sure the primary election is a safe and secure one.
“Social distancing is always going to be followed. Hand sanitizer will be there for you, masks will be there also for you as well,” Dave Pedri, Luzerne County Manager, told Eyewitness News.
The gymnasium at the Solomon Plains Junior High School will serve as a polling place Tuesday. It is one of the new consolidated polling places in Luzerne County because it had for more space for social distancing and COVID-19 safety measures.
Pedri walked Eyewitness News through the voting process. First, voters will be provided with a ballot, a pen, hand sanitizer and a mask. Voting stations are spaced six feet apart and voters will have to mark their ballots and feed them into the scanners.
“Every vote will have a paper trail. I’ll mark my ballot, feed it into the scanner. Obviously it’s closed up today. We are in preparation purposes. That will be it. I vote, say good bye, and I leave,” Pedri explained.
Luzerne County consolidated 144 polling places to 48 in an effort to use larger areas that will provide more space between voters. Other counties across our region are taking similar steps.
Coming up on Eyewitness News, from Your Local Election Headquarters, we will show what’s being done in Luzerne County to keep voters and election workers safe.