The final audit of primary election results is still under way. To ensure accuracy, the Sussex County Board of Elections will spend the next few days “carefully and methodically” reviewing the numbers before sending the unofficial results to the county clerk for certification, Board Administrator Marge McCabe said.
While Sussex County Clerk Jeff Parrott expects the results to be certified Monday afternoon, McCabe said the process will take longer. Election results must be certified within 10 days of an election.
Once the results are certified, the Board of Elections and voting machine technicians from Elections, Systems & Software, will analyze the recent glitches for answers.
McCabe said ES&S developers are currently reviewing the election results error during the April school board elections, where one district in Green was counted twice, causing the Green School District budget to appear to have failed, when it was actually approved.
“I have a suspicion one of the issues may have been the heat (during the primary election),” McCabe said.
Because the tabulation server is kept in a warehouse, where McCabe said it was above 80 degrees, the heat may have been one possible factor contributing to the inaccurate results.
“The computer stayed all night in the air conditioning and in the morning it worked perfectly,” she said. “I can’t think of any other explanation.”
All avenues for malfunction will be evaluated, however.
Representatives from ES&S did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday.
Source: New Jersey Herald.