Carbon County voiced concerns over changes the state made in the elections process that could slow results of the presidential primary.

On Thursday, the county election board and Lisa Dart, director of the election bureau, discussed changes that counties must implement into their process as a result of Act 77, which updates the election code.

One of the biggest changes is the new voter registration deadline, which is now 15 days prior to the election instead of 30.

Thankfully, Carbon has a printer who can turn around the polling books within a week.

The county also had to discard all election envelopes and purchase 25,000 new envelopes, delaying the processing of applications.

In addition, the county election office must now prepare for additional applications for the new mail-in ballot option, which is available to any registered voter in Carbon.

Dart said that both the absentee and mail-in applications can be submitted online or by mail to her office, but stressed that the correct ballot must be filled out, meaning that if you are ill or will not be in the area on Election Day, you must still use the absentee ballot.

Because of this new option, Carbon has hired two additional part-time staff for the office to help with processing applications and has purchased an additional high-speed scanner for the night of election.

The absentee and mail-in ballots process will also be changing. Instead of absentee ballots going to the precincts, they will remain at the election bureau and cannot be opened and processed until 8 p.m. on election night.

In addition, anyone who applies for one of these two types of ballots can either mail the ballot in or bring it directly to the election bureau, as long as it is received by 8 p.m. on election night. Voters who applied for these two types of ballots may not go to their precincts on the day of the election to turn in their ballot or attempt to vote at the polling place.

“We’re expecting between 5,000 and 9,000 based on prior years but we’re not really sure,” Dart said. Those figures are based on previous presidential elections and absentee ballots so they may be lower than the actual figures.

“We aren’t sure what to expect to we are preparing.”

A computer in the lobby outside the election office on Susquehanna Street has been set up for visitors interested in both applying for absentee or mail-in ballots to fill out the application electronically.

On election night, the county plans to bring in extra county workers to help process the totals, but delays in reporting the results may occur.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that it is not known at this time just how many absentee and mail-in ballots the county will receive and since they can’t be processed until 8 p.m. on election night, it may slow result reporting process.

“That’s why we bought a high speed scanner,” he said. “We just have no idea at this particular time how much time it will take in the new election process.”

Nothstein said his biggest fear is voters will use the mail-in option rather than going to the polls and casting a vote.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner added that his worst scenario would be that a third or more of the voters do mail-ins ahead of the election.

For more information on additional changes to the election code, voters can visit www.votespa.com.