Crucial Swing State County Bans Drop Boxes, Cites ‘Illegal Activities’

The backlash against ballot drop boxes is encompassing a crucial swing state where election officials have ruled that “illegal activities” around the locations necessitate their elimination for the November election.

Luzerne County, home to Wilkes-Barre and sitting southwest of Scranton, Pennsylvania, plans to do away with ballot drop boxes this year, according to county manager Romilda Crocamo. The election official told a local ABC affiliate that financial constraints as well as security concerns led her team to end the practice. “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,” she said in a statement to WNEP. “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.”

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Other states have relied on video cameras positioned over the drop boxes, a method that Crocamo said isn’t foolproof and can’t help election officials discern between legitimate ballots and those that may be forged, illegally harvested, or otherwise fraudulent. Video is not a “foolproof means of ensuring compliance with voting laws,” she said. The change means mailed ballots will now need to be sent directly to the Bureau of Elections by individual voters or dropped off at the bureau’s headquarters.

“Mail-in Ballots come in from a dropbox; we have to have two staff also do a chain of custody, so actually, it does drain a lot of our resources,” added Crocamo. “The insurance policy on the drop boxes also has a $10,000 limit, which exposes the county to financial risk should a problem arise.” Voters who spoke with WNEP gave conflicting opinions about the change, saying the suburban community has too many fiscal constraints while others say it disenfranchises others.

“It’s a waste of resources; we have 186 precincts along with mail-in ballots, which the postal service is going to be overladen with, to have the drop boxes in place; there really isn’t a purpose for them,” said Ronald Knapp of Nanticoke. Roni Good of Kingston disagreed, telling the outlet, “If they’re not gonna have drop boxes, what are we going to do about our mail system. I know people whose votes didn’t get counted because they were late.”

WATCH:

Election officials in Luzerne County, PA have banned all mail-in ballot drop boxes from the county due to concerns that "illegal activities," might occurpic.twitter.com/Ks20pEKvE7

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Pennsylvania is shaping up to be the must-win state of the season where every vote will matter. The Hill reported on a new poll Thursday showing Trump and Harris tied at 49% apiece while the former president posted narrow leads in the “blue wall” states of Michigan and Wisconsin. Vice President Harris is also contending with pessimism in the local party; U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) accidentally predicted that President Trump will carry the Keystone State on live TV.

“I think if you match up Trump with Harris, and I think that’s what this is really about, and I do believe he’s going to win Pennsylvania. And I do believe it’s going to be close, but whether it’s Biden, whether it was Clinton, or whether it was with Vice President Harris I think it’s going to be very close,” the contrarian Democrat told Newsmax back in August.

Fraud at ballot drop boxes has been caught before. In Massachusetts, election officials investigated a local city council candidate who declared victory in her city’s election only to be seen on tape raiding voters’ mailboxes as she searched for ballots that were apparently illegally deposited in their names. She faces charges of voter fraud.

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