Pennsylvania County Ditches Drop Boxes, Cites Security Concerns

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, will reportedly not use drop boxes this election cycle citing concerns of “illegal activities.”

Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo sent a notice to county election officials on Wednesday saying the county lacked the “capability” to ensure the drop boxes were safe locations for voters to leave their ballots, according to WNEP.

“While I recognize that drop boxes can provide alternative means for voters to cast their ballots, I must prioritize the safety and security of our community in the current political climate,” Crocamo said. “We don’t have the capability, we don’t have the number of staff members to actually stand by the drop boxes to keep them safe, so I decided I’m not going to deploy them.”

Crocamo reportedly expressed concern about “illegal activities,” and she noted that, while drop boxes are equipped with video surveillance, this alone is not a “foolproof means of ensuring compliance with voting laws.”

“Mail-in Ballots come in from a dropbox,” Crocamo reportedly said. “We have to have two staff also do a chain of custody, so actually, it does drain a lot of our resources.”

Voters can drop their ballots off at the Bureau of Elections or mail their ballots in, according to WNEP.

Other Pennsylvania counties concerned about the security of ballot drop boxes have implemented safeguards ahead of November. In Bucks County, “each drop box is located within a government building,” which means the “boxes are only accessible during the hours the government building is open,” as Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Josh Findlay explained in these pages. In addition, “drop boxes are monitored by both county observers and video surveillance.” The drop boxes also contain clear signage that has instructions for voters.

Ballot drop boxes are notoriously insecure, with a judge overturning a race in Connecticut after alleged mail-in ballot fraud. During the September 2023 primary, Democrat Joe Ganim was losing to John Gomes by hundreds of votes after in-person voting but ended up winning after a flood of absentee votes came in. Surveillance footage appeared to show that two city employees (Democrats affiliated with Ganim) stuffed ballot drop boxes. Under state law, a voter “must personally mail or personally return the ballot for it to be counted” with limited exceptions. Ganim later won the do-over race as well.

During the 2020 election, key swing states saw an influx of grants from left-wing donors and organizations. Some of that money went toward the installation of unsecured ballot drop boxes, like in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that “Milwaukee installed 15 unstaffed ballot drop boxes” in 2020 with money it received from the Center for Tech & Civic Life (CTCL). President Joe Biden narrowly won the state in 2020 by roughly 20,000 votes.

Wisconsin saw a temporary reprieve when the state Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the widespread use of unmanned absentee drop boxes violated state law. The court reversed the ruling this year after leftists flipped the bench, with the newly left-wing court endorsing the widespread use of unsecured ballot drop boxes.

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