Monmouth County Republican chairman Shaun Golden called the computer glitch that delayed the Nov. 4 election results until the next morning “unacceptable” for local residents and “an embarrassment” to the county itself. “We’ve had problems in the past as well,” said Golden, who is also the county’s sheriff, to the Board of Chosen Freeholders Thursday night. “If there is any time for accountability in government, it is now.” Nineteen of 21 New Jersey counties use elections equipment from Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. of Denver. No other county had the widespread problems that Monmouth faced.
Monmouth officials, after nearly a week of testing, determined the problem wasn’t Dominion’s fault, but rather was caused by a misstep when the county upgraded its elections software to the latest version in September. Four laptops used to create cartridges that record election data did not have the old operating software removed before that upgrade.
And because of that municipal clerks encounter problems electronically reading and sending the data from those cartridges to Monmouth County Clerk’s office, which compiles the results. Golden did not say in his public comments who should be held responsible for the glitch and what, if any, repercussions that person should face. After the meeting, he declined to elaborate.
Full Article: Golden calls election glitch unacceptable.