A bill that would allow elections officials to count votes ahead of Election Day failed in the state Senate on Thursday. After a relatively lengthy debate during which a bipartisan group of senators raised concerns about the legislation, Senate President Nick Scutari pulled the measure from the board after its total hung at 20 yes votes to 16 no votes — one vote short of passage. The bill, NJ S856 (22R), would allow county boards of elections to open and count mail-in ballots beginning 10 days before Election Day and for county clerks to tally in-person early votes 24 hours after that voting period ends. Vote counting was slow in some counties in last year’s election. Because of that, high-profile politicians like Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli and Senate President Steve Sweeney took more than a week to concede their races. The bill is similar to a measure that was put in place for only the 2020 election, which was conducted almost entirely by mail-in ballot because of the pandemic. But while there were no reported problems with that law, several senators — including one Democrat — raised concerns about results leaking out and giving certain candidates advantages, even though doing so would be a third-degree crime.
New Jersey: How a voter’s mistake threw an entire election into months of legal chaos | Colleen Murphy | NJ.com
A single write-in vote has prompted a New Jersey appeals court to order a runoff election in a Toms River fire district. The election, which originally took place in February 2025, ended in a tie, followed by a vote reversal, and a legal battle over ballot counting. In a ruling issued Monday, the Appellate Division ordered a new election between Michael Hopson and Anthony Cirz, who are competing for one of two open seats on the Toms River Fire District No. 1 Board of Commissioners. The original results showed a tie between Hopson and Cirz, which was certified and publicly posted, but days later, election officials revised the results. They discovered that one voter had used the voting machine’s write-in option to vote for Cirz and another candidate, James Golden, even though both names were already printed on the ballot. Those write-in votes were then added to the candidates’ official totals, giving Cirz a one-vote lead over Hopson. Read Article