Outgoing Luzerne County election director briefs council

At the request of Luzerne County Manager Randy Robertson, outgoing county Election Director Michael Susek offered a parting assessment during this week’s council meeting.

A Plains Township native, Susek’s last day is today. He started as county election director in December and had 15 years of elections administration experience through positions in three Colorado counties. He was already familiar with election operations here because he worked as a consultant for The Elections Group last fall providing November general election support to the county.

As reported many times, Susek is the third election director since Marissa Crispell resigned from the position in September 2019, following criticism over her participation in vendor-funded advisory board trips.

Susek accepted another position outside county government and chose not to publicly air any factors that played a role in his departure.

But Susek did make it clear to council it had nothing to do with the county’s use of mail ballot drop boxes — a contentious issue that has dominated recent council meetings and some election board meetings. Susek said a comment made earlier in the council meeting linking election staff turnover to drop boxes was “categorically untrue.”

Instead, Susek cited a study that documented turnover primarily stems from political interference, threats of violence and election disinformation.

“We’re not leaving the profession due to mail ballot drop boxes,” Susek told council before going on to correct inaccuracies presented in recent council meetings regarding mail ballots and drop boxes.

During his presentation, Susek said his greatest career success occurred here, when the county successfully conducted two separate elections within six weeks — an April 6 special election for state representative in the 116th Legislative District and the county’s May 17 primary.

The county also pulled this off within a drastically shortened timeline stemming from new legislative boundary lines, he said.

To get through it, Susek said he used the word “triage” more times than he cares to admit and worked many long days with a staff “constantly in go-mode.”

“I want to make sure the organization and public knows you should be incredibly confident in this organization. I know I am,” Susek said.

Carrying out elections is a “massive collaboration” among many county departments, vendors and stakeholders beyond the election bureau and volunteer citizen election board, he said, citing the sheriff, building and grounds, mapping/GIS and information technology departments among the examples.

Improvements

The election bureau has started migrating management of voting equipment, polling places and other processes from paper reports and simple spread sheets to customized cloud-based programs, Susek told council. He compared it to switching from analog to digital.

With 1,100 pieces of voting equipment and a $3.6 million voting system, real-time tracking is warranted for accountability, chain of custody and procurement, he said.

“It was a major leap in creating a more modern office,” Susek said.

The purging of inactive voters also has been a priority, as required by the National Voter Registration Act, Susek said.

Judicial Watch Inc., a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, had informed the county last year, before Susek’s employment, that purging requirements were not met.

In June 2021, the county purged 17,420 voters from its registration due to inactivity.

Susek said address verification notices were recently sent to 7,000 voters as part of ongoing compliance.

“They are absolutely on top of that now. They are doing that correctly,” Susek said.

He also highlighted the hiring of Emily Cook as the bureau’s first operations manager, saying her main focus has been ensuring voting equipment at the county’s warehouse in Wilkes-Barre is properly maintained and stored and working with the voting system vendor to learn more about machine programming and other work that may be performed in-house in the future.

Cook also has started working on drafting written protocols of all election procedures.

Susek also said he stands behind the hiring of Beth Gilbert McBride as deputy director, maintaining her educational background and experience in municipal government has been an “incredible asset” to the bureau.

As an example, Susek said she has developed a draft memorandum of understanding involving video surveillance recordings of mail ballot drop boxes.

“I was absolutely confident in hiring her,” Susek said.

Transition

Robertson urged council members to assist in recruiting the “best and brightest” for the position, saying “there are not a lot out there that are asking for this job.”

There are a dozen applicants for the position to date, and new Administrative Services Division Head Jennifer Pecora will make the screening of applicants a top priority, Robertson said.

The county advertised the position at $64,500 annually on July 28 and will continue accepting applications until it is filled instead of setting a specific deadline. Information is available under the human resources department “career opportunities” section at luzernecounty.org.

Susek attended his last election board meeting as director Wednesday.

Board member Alyssa Fusaro jokingly said she is mad at Susek for leaving because she witnessed him doing one “heck of a job” in both elections earlier this year.

Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams said he made “numerous and excellent” improvements and thanked him for preparing Cook and McBride.

“I think you set them up very well,” Williams said.