Luzerne County Council Vice Chairman Brian Thornton weighs in on election board structure

Luzerne County Council Vice Chairman Brian Thornton is no longer advocating placing council members on the county election board, according to an email he sent to the county’s Government Study Commission this week.

The commission is set to start discussing the election board composition Thursday as part of its ongoing review of potential county home rule charter changes expected to appear on the November 2025 election ballot.

Prior to home rule’s 2012 implementation, the county’s three elected commissioners served as the election board, with the court appointing substitutes during periods when sitting commissioners appeared on the ballot.

In comparison, the charter created an election board of five citizens. The 11-member council appoints four of the five — two Democrats and two Republicans. Those four council-appointed members then select someone of any affiliation or no affiliation to fill the fifth seat and also serve as chair.

Thornton said Wednesday he is not against the concept of council members serving on the board but is instead concerned about their availability to perform the additional responsibility, particularly if few or no council members are retired.

His email said he initially thought placing two county council members on future election boards would be a good idea.

“However, I am now having second thoughts. I think it would be particularly burdensome on a council member to put in the time required to meet the extensive time requirements of the board’s duties, especially prior to and after both election cycles each year,” Thornton wrote. “This becomes even more challenging if the future number of council members is reduced given the number of current obligations facing council members.”

A study commission majority has supported switching from 11 to seven council members.

Thornton cited the volume of voting, work session and executive session meetings council members must attend. He noted he also chairs three boards/committees, participates in infrastructure discussions due to his civil engineering background and regularly visits sites throughout the county that received county federal American Rescue Plan Act awards.

Council seats pay $8,000 annually and are considered part-time.

“I submit that to do the job properly, one must commit far greater to the effort than that of a part-time job,” Thornton said of council. “I sincerely believe that the general public and future office seekers of a county council seat have little knowledge of the vast time requirements.”

Thornton emphasized he is not complaining because public service is in his “heart and soul,” but requiring council members to sit on the election board “with its own heavy workload could be quite burdensome.”

Commission Vice Chairman Vito Malacari said Wednesday he shares Thornton’s concerns about requiring elected officials to serve on the board due to their other responsibilities.

The election board is busy, he said. It provides general supervision over elections, certifies results and makes determinations on the tallying of flagged ballots during post-election adjudication.

“Watching the election board meetings over the last three years, those individuals put a lot of personal time and effort into those meetings, especially right before and after primary and general elections,” Malacari said.

Malacari said several citizens also submitted communications this week outright opposing the addition of any elected officials to the election board. Collectively, the citizens expressed concerns that the change could lead to political interference and compromise election integrity, he said.

Charter drafters wanted to “keep politics away” from the election board, he said, expressing a desire to stick to the charter’s original intent as much as possible and only propose changes where warranted.

Malacari said he will keep an open mind and listen to all viewpoints on the election board structure.

“I’m glad we’re tackling it now,” he said of the election board.

He believes the election board is the primary reason a county council majority chose to place the study commission activation question on the April 2024 ballot.

In 2023, a council majority had approved a charter amendment referendum that would have restructured the election board, including empowering council to appoint the fifth election board member and allowing the board to select any member as chair instead of automatically making the member in the fifth seat the chair.

Citing concerns about the legality of the proposed changes, election board members unanimously voted against providing the required certification for this referendum, prompting council to take legal action.

A council majority ended up withdrawing the litigation against the board, rescinding the proposed election board referendum and supporting the referendum to convene a study commission to examine the entire charter.

Thursday’s study commission meeting is at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. A link to attend the meeting remotely will be posted under council’s online meeting section (scroll down) at luzernecounty.org.