|
BUREAU OF ELECTIONS
MANAGEMENT
Leonard C. Piazza III
Director of Elections
Luzerne County Bureau of Elections
20 North Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 207
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711
P: (570) 825-1715
F: (570) 820-6399
Leonard Piazza was appointed Director of Elections in April 2004, and joined the county management team in 1998. Since joining the Bureau of Elections in 2002, and working directly with the Luzerne County Board of Elections, Mr. Piazza has overseen the implementation of electronic voting in Luzerne County in response to a federal mandate known as the Help American Vote Act (HAVA). The county maintains HAVA compliance with its initial assistance package of over $3 million in federal grants. In 2010, the Bureau of Elections implemented the federal Military and Overseas Empowement Act (MOVE) which provides cutting-edge ballot access to qualified military and overseas electors.
In addition, Mr. Piazza has overseen the reduction in the number of voting precincts from an initial 316 to 189. The reduction of voting precincts, authorized by the Luzerne County Board of Elections in 2005, streamlines the election process, facilitates compliance with the Help America Vote Act and, lastly, reduces election-day operating expenditures by nearly $250,000.00 each year.
Mr. Piazza, in cooperation with the administrative offices of the county to cut costs, has overseen the reduction of Election Bureau operating staff in recent years. Down from a permanent staff of twenty, which included two managers, an administrative assistant and seventeen employees from one of the bargaining units of Luzerne County, the Bureau of Elections currently operates with 10 full-time employees. The Bureau of Elections maintains several internal divisions handling matters of voter registration and absentee voting, electronic voting, candidate management and campaign finance. The 2010 annual operating budget for the Bureau of Elections is $1.053 million.
Mr. Piazza is a 1996 graduate of King’s College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He also is a 2006 graduate of Leadership Wilkes-Barre’s Core Leadership Development Program. Mr. Piazza was appointed a member of the Commonwealth’s H.A.V.A. State Planning Advisory Board in 2005 by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. In 2009, Mr. Piazza was the appointed by the Senate Minorty Leader of the General Assembly to the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) Advisory Board. Mr. Piazza also serves as an appointee of Luzerne County Commissioners to the Board of Directors of the non-profit corporation Wire Free Wilkes-Barre.
Mr. Piazza resides in the City of Wilkes-Barre.
 |
|
|
