New Jersey

New Jersey bill to allow machine election audits clears committee | Zach Blackburn/New Jersey Globe

A Senate panel on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would reform how post-election audits are undertaken. The Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism, & Historic Preservation Committee voted to pass state Sen. Andrew Zwicker’s (D-South Brunswick) bill through the committee. The legislation would allow post-election audits to be conducted with independent, third-party ballot machines in addition to a hand count. Audits are currently conducted exclusively through hand counts, and Zwicker, the Senate bill’s sole sponsor, stated that the reform would enable more efficient auditing. The Democrat says reform to the system is further needed due to the increased embrace of early voting and vote-by-mail in the state’s elections. Read Article

New Jersey: Territorialism, poorly trained poll workers contributed to Burlington County’s 2024 election ‘failures,’ report says | Alfred Lubrano/The Philadelphia Inquirer

In a pointed report released Thursday, a North Jersey law firm found numerous problems with how Burlington County conducted the 2024 election last November, which was characterized by “unacceptable” long lines and voting delays. The report, written by Connell Foley LLP, a law firm in Roseland, Essex County, outlines findings of “a culture of territorialism,” “partisan tension,” and “personality conflicts” among countywide election offices. The report also cited poll workers who refused to accept delivery of a new voting machine that would have alleviated delays; poorly trained poll workers who did not understand the voting process; and election officials who would “not work together at all,” among other problems. Read Article

New Jersey’s ballot design that gave party bosses big influence is officially dead | Ry Rivard/Politico

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday signed into law a redesign of primary ballots, formally ending an entrenched system that gave unique influence to the state’s party bosses but faced an unexpected wave of opposition. It’s known as the county line and was an only-in-Jersey phenomenon that faced a reckoning following the 2023 indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez. But it became a strange vestige of Tammany Hall-era machine politics that then-Gov. Woodrow Wilson tried to snuff out over a century ago. The county line system gave political parties in all but two of the state’s 21 counties the power to help design primary ballots based on party endorsements. Party-backed candidates were grouped together while candidates without endorsements were displayed awkwardly or on obscure parts of the ballot. Getting the line could make or break a campaign. Read Article

New Jersey ballots will look different this year. Here’s what’s being considered.  | Aliya Schneider/The Philadelphia Inquirer

After a federal judge ruled that New Jersey’s ballot design was likely unconstitutional, state lawmakers found themselves recreating the rules of the ballot in what one expert called the most drastic ballot redesign happening in this political moment. State lawmakers have been navigating a hefty question: What makes a fair ballot? And, those watching have asked, how far from tradition are elected officials willing to stray when their own political future is in play? The stakes are high. With the old system gone, candidates with establishment support lose the advantage the old county line system gave them, incentivizing more candidates to throw their hat into the ring. Read Article

New Jersey: Strong criticism as ballot redesign bill advances | Colleen O’Dea/NJ Spotlight News

New design rules for New Jersey’s primary ballots got a step closer to enactment after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that some warn seeks to give some candidates an edge and could make the ballot more difficult for voters to read. Some of those who spoke during Thursday’s committee hearing complained that the bill (S-4142) could make it harder for voters to read ballots by removing the requirement that all ballots use a uniform font. That requirement is included in a version of the bill that passed the Assembly and was something ballot design experts argued for during a series of hearings by a special bipartisan Assembly committee. Read Article

New Jersey: New plan to boost voter turnout: send mail voting applications as 18th birthday gift | Nikita Biryukov/New Jersey Monitor

A Senate panel approved legislation that would require the state to send a vote-by-mail application to New Jersey residents upon their 18th birthday in what the bill’s sponsor said is a bid to boost turnout. The legislation, which passed the Senate’s state government committee in a 3-0 vote Monday, would require county clerks send mail ballots to registered voters when they reach the age of majority. “Only 65% of eligible New Jerseyans cast a ballot in this year’s election, marking the lowest turnout for a presidential race in state history,” said Sen. Jim Beach (D-Camden), the bill’s sponsor and the committee’s chairman. “One way to improve voter participation is to increase accessibility for young voters, many of whom are away at school during general elections.” Read Article

New Jersey: Two settlements approved in the historic dismantling of ‘county line’ ballot method | Amy S. Rosenberg/Philadelphia Inquirer

A federal judge on Thursday approved the first two county settlements in a lawsuit filed by U.S. Senate candidate Andy Kim that successfully challenged New Jersey’s Democratic Party primary ballot system that allowed preferential ballot position to party-endorsed candidates. The agreements were filed by Burlington County, Kim’s home county, and Middlesex County and approved by U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi. Kim, the Democratic candidate in the general election, called the settlements “the start of a new era of politics.” “The court judge approved our first settlement agreements — making Burlington & Middlesex counties the first to permanently stop the ‘county line’ ballot. Let’s build momentum across all counties to get NJ the fair ballot it deserves.” Read Article

New Jersey: ES&S coding glitch gives wrong ballots to some Cape May County voters | David Wildstein/New Jersey Globe

A programming glitch caused by controversial voting machine manufacturer ES&S led to voters in Wildwood Crest being served ballots from Wildwood during the early voting process, preventing at least 26 votes from casting their votes in a race for Democratic county committee. In a bad break for ES&S, one of the voters affected was Marie Blistan, the Cape May County Democratic Chair and the former president of the New Jersey Education Association. Blistan went to vote on Wednesday and couldn’t find her own name for a county committee seat in Wildwood Crest on the ballot.  She wrote herself and her running mate in and then notified the county clerk that ballot issues existed. “There was an issue with the voting machines as far as what came up on the screen,” said Deputy Attorney General Karen Catanese.  “There was a coding issue, and so instead of Wildwood Crest coming up, Wildwood came up.  As soon as that was realized, the board took action and called ES&S.  They worked it out, figured out what the issue was, and it was resolved within the next day.” Read Article

Rows and Columns, the County Line, and the ExpressVote XL | Andrew Appel/Freedom to Tinker

Why did New Jersey counties keep choosing one insecure voting machine after another, for decades?  Only this year did I realize what the reason might be. A century ago, New Jersey (like many other states) adopted lever voting machines that listed the offices by row, with the parties (and their candidates) across the columns. The Help America Vote act of 2002 banned the use of those machines (and also banned punch-card voting machines).  The states that were using paper ballots could continue to use them, but the states and counties using lever machines or punch cards had to switch to something else:  either paper ballots (counted by optical scanners) or paperless touch-screen voting machines.  Election-security experts urged the states and counties to avoid touch-screen voting computers, but almost every New Jersey county ignored them and adopted the AVC Advantage voting machine. Read Article

New Jersey: Federal appeals court upholds order barring county-line ballots | Nikita Biryukov/New Jersey Monitor

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction preventing the use of county-line ballots in June’s Democratic primaries in New Jersey, rejecting a request from the Camden County Democratic Committee to overturn the ruling. The decision, stemming from a lawsuit initiated by U.S. Rep. Andy Kim and others, reinforces a lower court’s finding that the county-line ballot design is likely unconstitutional. Advocates for the injunction argue that the county-line system unfairly advantages party-backed candidates and discourages potential challengers. The ruling is seen as a significant win for progressives in New Jersey, signaling a shift away from what they view as an antidemocratic practice. Read Article

New Jersey county clerks forge ahead with new ballot design | Colleen O’Dea/NJ Spotlight News

New Jersey Democratic primary voters will see ballots that look very different from what they are used to and also different from the ones Republican voters will see. County clerks are designing ballots for the June election to comply with the recent federal court ruling that ends the state’s unique “county-line” balloting, though only for the Democratic primary. Clerks have been working with vendors Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software to design the new ballots and meet the April 20 deadline for sending out mail-in ballots. Some clerks have already completed their work and displayed the new designs during their drawings last Thursday for where to place candidates on the ballot. Read Article

New Jersey county clerks drop appeal of order barring use of county-line ballots | Nikita Biryukov/New Jersey Monitor

New Jersey county clerks have withdrawn from the appeal of a court order banning the use of the county line in June’s Democratic primaries, following a federal appeals court’s decision not to block the lower court’s order. While the appeal will proceed with the Camden County Democratic Committee still challenging the order, clerks’ withdrawals were praised by progressive activists who argue that the county line unfairly benefits certain candidates. The appeal centers on a preliminary injunction barring the use of county-line ballots, which was issued after a lawsuit by Rep. Andy Kim and other plaintiffs alleged constitutional violations. Read Article

New Jersey: Why Everyone Is Talking About ‘the Line’ | Tracey Tully/The New York Times

New Jersey’s ballot design, featuring favored candidates in a prominent position known as “the line,” is facing a legal challenge that could potentially change the state’s entire electoral system, especially with the high-stakes Democratic primary for U.S. Senate underway. Congressman Andy Kim’s legal challenge argues the current ballot design is unconstitutional, as it disproportionately benefits candidates endorsed by local political leaders, leading to questions about electoral fairness. The lawsuit has gained traction, with New Jersey’s attorney general declaring “the line” unconstitutional, prompting a federal judge to hold a daylong hearing. Read Article

New Jersey: District Judge has skepticism for both sides in first half of county line hearing | Joey Fox/New Jersey Globe

The federal case addressing the constitutionality of the county organizational line in New Jersey’s primary ballots commenced with U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi expressing skepticism toward aspects of both parties’ arguments. Rep. Andy Kim and two congressional candidates brought the lawsuit, asserting that the county line unfairly benefits certain candidates. Quraishi raised concerns about considering a letter from New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, who expressed agreement with Kim’s stance but is not directly involved in the case. The proceedings included arguments regarding the feasibility of altering the ballot design before the primary, with the plaintiffs advocating for changes and the defendants asserting that such alterations could cause disruption. Read Article

New Jersey: Probe blames ES&S for double-counting votes in Monmouth County 2022 election | David Wildstein/New Jersey Globe

An independent investigation, ordered by the state attorney general’s office, attributes a 2022 election tabulation malfunction in four Monmouth County municipalities to Election Systems & Software (ES&S). The error, which led to a school board race result reversal, occurred due to ES&S’s failure to apply a software patch to prevent double ballot tabulation. Additionally, a customer relations manager sent by ES&S lacked the necessary training to rectify the issue. The investigation concluded that elections in New Jersey are secure and no fraudulent conduct was involved. Read Article

New Jersey law aims to bring uniformity to how clerks report election results | Sophie Nieto-Munoz/New Jersey Monitor

Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill into law aimed at making reporting of election results more uniform statewide in New Jersey. The law requires county clerks to post election results online by 11:59 p.m. on the day of primary and general elections and to continue posting them daily by 9 p.m. until all the ballots are counted and the election is certified. The goal is to bring clarity to the reporting process and restore faith in the elections process, countering misinformation and confusion that may arise from inconsistent reporting. The law also mandates the disclosure of the number of voting machines used, the type of ballots counted, and provides district-level results broken down by early in-person votes, Election Day machine votes, and mail-in votes. The bill includes a $1.5 million appropriation to help implement the new requirements. Read Article

New Jersey: Elections officials in two counties won’t turn over voting machine tests, suit says | Anthony G. Attrino/NJ.com

A Bergen County man has filed lawsuits against boards of elections in two New Jersey counties, claiming they have refused his requests to view ballot test reports used to determine the logic and accuracy of voting machines. Yehuda Miller, of Teaneck, filed suit against Bergen and Atlantic counties, claiming in court papers that elections officials have responded to his Open Public Records Act filings, but refused to provide the information he’s requested. “They’re claiming the information is proprietary,” said attorney Walter Luers, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of Miller against the Bergen County Board of Elections. Test decks are used to determine whether voting machines are operating properly, Luers said. Both lawsuits were filed recently in New Jersey Superior Court. In the Bergen County lawsuit, filed on April 17, Miller states he emailed a request under OPRA for copies of ballot test decks used in the 2022 general election for votes cast on election day, mail-in ballots and for early voting. Bergen County elections officials responded test decks are exempt from disclosure under state law because making them public “would jeopardize computer security for future elections,” the suit states.

Full Article: Elections officials in 2 N.J. counties won’t turn over voting machine tests, suit says

New Jersey: Monmouth County recount after ES&S screwup changes results of 2022 election | David Wildstein/New Jersey Globe

A court-ordered recount in Monmouth County after the nation’s largest voting machine manufacturer, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), admitted to a programming error that caused some votes to be double counted, appears to have changed the outcome of one race in the November 2022 general election. In the Ocean Township school board contest, a hand recount of ballots in Ocean Township shows Jeff Weinstein with a four-vote lead, 3,408 to 3,404, against Steve Clayton. After the votes were tallied in November, Clayton had defeated Weinstein, then the incumbent, by 20 votes. Clayton took office last month. Clayton lost 119 votes from his November total, while Weinstein lost 95. Attorney General Matt Platkin has ordered an investigation into the the ES&S system failure. Once the new result is certified, the contest will likely head back to Superior Court Judge David Bauman for instructions on removing Clayton and seating Weinstein.

Full Article: Monmouth recount after ES&S screwup changes results of 2022 election – New Jersey Globe

New Jersey Judge orders recount in Monmouth County after some 2022 votes were double-counted | David Wildstein/New Jersey Globe

A Superior Court judge today ordered a recount of some voting machines in four Monmouth County municipalities after errors with the installation of voting machine software from Election Systems and Software (ES&S) caused some votes to be double counted in the November 2022 general election. That could change the outcome of a school board race in Ocean Township, where Steve Clayton unseated incumbent Jeff Weinstein by 20 votes and was sworn in last month; unofficial tallies now put Weinstein ahead by just one vote. Election officials said that the recount will be held on February 8. In his decision, Judge David Bauman relied on a New Jersey Supreme Court decision that election laws should be interpreted liberally as a reason for recounting and rechecking voting machines in Ocean Township, Belmar, Fair Haven, and Tinton Falls even though the deadline had passed. “The public interest in (the) finality of counting votes and election outcomes, in this instance, has not been shown to be strong enough to warrant strict enforcement of the provisions of (the statutes) … where, as here, the counting error appears to have been derived from a unique confluence of mechanical and human error, and no one on this record opposes the prayers for relief,” Bauman wrote in his ruling.

Full Article: Judge orders recount in Monmouth County after some 2022 votes were double-counted – New Jersey Globe

New Jersey county will seek court-ordered recount after voting machines produced erroneous election results 7 David Wildstein/New Jersey Globe

The Monmouth County Board of Elections are expected to ask a judge to order a recount of an Ocean Township school board race after their voting machine vendor, Election Systems and Software (ES&S), acknowledged on Tuesday that a human programming error caused some votes to be double counted, the New Jersey Globe has learned. Frustration among election officials in Monmouth County from both parties has caused the election board to move forward despite the advice of the New Jersey Attorney General’s office and not recanvass and recertify the November 8 general election, two sources with direct knowledge of the board’s actions have confirmed. … The company, which services a large percentage of U.S. voting machines, sought to downplay the problem. “In Monmouth County, the outcome of one race in the 2022 November General Election – a local, nonpartisan race – was affected due to USB flash media being loaded twice into the results reporting module,” said Katrina Granger, an ES&S spokesperson. “This isolated incident occurred due to a human procedural error. An audit of the system yielded this information.”

Full Article: N.J. county will seek court-ordered recount after voting machines produced erroneous election results – New Jersey Globe

New Jersey: Next Steps for Mercer County Following Voting-Machine Failure | Andrew Appel/Freedom to Tinker

Hand-marked optical-scan paper ballots are the most secure form of voting: with any other method, if the computerized voting machines are hacked, there’s no trustworthy paper trail from which we can determine the true outcome of the election, based on the choices that voters actually indicated.  Even those voting methods that appear to have a paper trail, if it’s a computer that created the paper trail, it’s less trustworthy.  And that’s the case even if the human voters have an opportunity to look at the paper, as I will explain below. Mercer County, NJ uses hand-marked paper ballots in its election-day polling places.  That’s good.  But after the system-wide voting-machine failure in Mercer County, some county officials are thinking of abandoning hand-marked paper ballots, and using Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) in polling places.  That would be a bad idea: BMDs can never be as secure as hand-marked paper ballots.   The use of BMDs can lead to unrecoverable election failures.  In  contrast, Mercer County’s failure was recoverable:  Even though the voting machines failed to work on election day, voters could (and did) hand-mark the same paper ballots that they would have fed into those voting machines, and the Board of Elections could (and did) count those ballots with their high-speed central-count optical scanners.

Full Article: Next Steps for Mercer County Following Voting-Machine Failure – Freedom to Tinker

New Jersey: Why the voting machines failed in Mercer County | Andrew Appel/Freedom to Tinker

On Election Day, November 8, 2022, every voting machine in every polling place in Mercer County, New Jersey failed to work.  Voters in each precinct filled in the ovals in their preprinted optical-scan paper ballots, but the voting machines couldn’t read them.  So voters were instructed to put their ballots into “slot 3” of the voting machines, that is, directly into the ballot box.  The Mercer County Board of Elections collected the ballots at the close of the polls on election night, using their usual chain-of-custody procedures.  Then they counted those ballots using the county’s central-count optical-scan voting machines, which are normally used for mail-in ballots.  This took two or three days.  All the votes got counted – but it’s still an embarrassing screw-up that deserves scrutiny. Between 2002 and 2018, Mercer County used paperless full-face touchscreen voting machines.  That was an untrustworthy technology–if the computer miscounted the votes because of hacking or malfunction, there were no paper ballots that could be recounted, and we’d never know.  So I was glad to see those machines go, and glad to see them replaced by hand-marked optical-scan paper ballots, counted by precinct-count optical scanners.  This is the most securable technology I know of.  And that method of vote-counting is robust, meaning even if the voting machines fail to operate, voters can deposit their ballots in a ballot box for counting later.  That’s how all the votes got counted in the November 22 election. Still, we don’t expect every voting machine in the whole county to fail at once!  So what happened exactly?

Full Article: Why the voting machines failed in Mercer County

New Jersey: All Election Day votes are counted in Mercer County after mishap, but questions remain | Katie Sobko/northjersey.com

All ballots cast in person on Election Day have been counted in Mercer County, officials said this week. But that doesn’t include more than 5,200 provisional, 700 emergency and an unknown number of mail-in ballots that still need to be reviewed to decide a handful of local races. “The Office of the Mercer County Superintendent of Elections will continue to work through this process to ensure that all votes cast are counted,” Nathaniel Walker, the Mercer County superintendent of elections, said in a statement. “We remain committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections.” That announcement came a week after problems scanning ballots in voting machines on Election Day prompted voters to use backup paper ballots and, two days later, election officials won a court order to open voting machines to look for potentially missing ballots. Walker did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the search. “Everything’s been accounted for, and they counted all of the Election Day ballots. They are currently counting provisional ballots and vote-by-mail ballots … and emergency ballots as well,” Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello said. “This is a report that was made to me” by Walker’s office, she added. Sollami-Covello said she wasn’t involved in the court order last week.

Full Article: NJ elections: Mercer County live ballots counted, questions remain

New Jersey: Ballots missing in Mercer County after voting machine problems | David Wildstein/New Jersey Globe

Ballots from four voting districts in Mercer County have gone missing after paper ballots were shuttled between polling locations and the county election board following a complete failure of voting machines in Tuesday’s election. Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried said that the Mercer County Board of Elections contacted the township at 5 PM today to report that ballots from one of Robbinsville’s nine voting districts “had gone missing.” Records also show that three districts in Princeton – all cast at the municipal building – were also not recorded as received by the election board. The missing Robbinsville ballots were cast at the Mercer County Library. “The fundamentals of democracy is that every vote would be counted,” Fried said. “Clearly, this has yet to happen in Robbinsville, as approximately 11% of our residents’ votes have yet to be safely delivered and tallied.” A race for the Robbinsville school board, where 103 votes separate Peter Oehlberg and Christopher Emigholz, could be affected by the lost ballots. So could a Princeton school board contest where 67 votes separate Deborah Bronfeld and Rita Rafalvovsky.

Full Article: Ballots missing in Mercer County after voting machine problems – New Jersey Globe

New Jersey bill to allow for early mail ballot counting fails in Senate | Matt Friedman/Politico

Full Article: Bill to allow for early vote counting fails in New Jersey Senate – POLITICO

New Jersey bills advance to allow early counting of vote-by-mail ballots, increase poll worker pay | Michelle Brunetti Post/Press of Atlantic City

New Jersey: Bill would revive stalled rule requiring state’s voting machines leave paper trail | Nikita Biryukov/New Jersey Monitor

For more than a decade, a New Jersey law requiring the state’s counties to use voting machines that can create a paper record of every vote cast has gone unenforced because of the amount of money it would cost counties. That may soon change. A new bill — sponsored by Sens. Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex) and Jim Beach (D-Camden) — would alter the rule by requiring counties to purchase machines that create a paper trail when older machines age out. The bill would allow the New Jersey secretary of state to waive the requirement for machines used in an election before the bill’s effective date, which comes on the first day of the third month following its passage. The proposal would bar the secretary of state from issuing such waivers for machines purchased or leased after that date. Paper records can serve multiple purposes. Besides allowing voters to review their slips to ensure their votes were recorded correctly, they’re also used in election audits and recounts. The old requirement, set to go into effect in January 2009, was never enforced because provisions of the law required it to be suspended until New Jersey received federal funds for statewide machine upgrades or appropriated money for the purpose in the state budget. Those provisions appear to have been put in place to head off an unfavorable ruling from the Council on Local Mandates, which enforces a constitutional requirement that the state government pay for mandates it imposes.

Full Article: Bill would revive stalled rule requiring state’s voting machines leave paper trail – New Jersey Monitor

New Jersey poll workers struggle to connect to the internet, causing delays | Neil Vigdor and Tracey Tully/The New York Times

Full Article: Wifi Struggles in New Jersey Contribute to Voting Problems – The New York Times

New Jersey voters faced a new way to sign in. It didn’t always go smoothly for poll workers or those casting ballots. | Ted Sherman/NJ.com

As New Jersey voters waited in line on Tuesday, they were handed a disposable rubber-tipped stylus to electronically sign their names before casting their ballots. Signing the poll book is an Election Day exercise that in the past involved thick volumes of scrawled signatures tracking one’s participation in Democracy over the years — while serving to verify someone’s identify. But this year, the process was a little different. And that didn’t come without problems. Counties for the first time were using electronic poll books instead of paper ones — a change mandated by the move to early voting in the state. The electronic system, which updates the state voter database in real-time, has a record of all eligible voters for each polling location. It is meant to prevent someone from voting in multiple locations or on different days, officials explained, making possible the offering of early voting with safeguards intended to to flag those trying to vote more than once. But at a number of polling locations, election workers had issues connecting through the internet to the state database, which led to long lines in some places, and voters even being turned away from others.

Full Article: N.J. voters faced a new way to sign in. It didn’t always go smoothly for poll workers or those casting ballots. – nj.com

New Jersey: Ocean County Republicans and Democrats fight over voting machines | Erik Larsen/Asbury Park Press

Ocean County will spend $2.75 million on equipment needed to meet the requirements of the state’s new in-person early voting law that goes into effect for the first time in the general election this fall. Between Oct. 23 and Halloween night, the county’s voters will be able to choose among 10 polling places throughout Ocean County — regardless of what town they live in — to cast an early vote in this year’s elections for governor, Legislature, county commission, municipal office, as well as for their local and regional school boards. Of course, voters who value tradition over convenience can still cast their ballot on Election Day itself — which falls on Nov. 2 this year — at their regular local polling place on the county’s existing voting machines, just as they always did before the COVID-19 pandemic. The county Board of Commissioners unanimously authorized a spending ordinance for the new early voting machines at its Wednesday meeting — bonding $2.6 million of the amount — with the money to be reimbursed by the state of New Jersey at a future date. The choice of voting equipment to be purchased has been the subject of some controversy, with county Democrats and Republicans divided on the matter along partisan lines at the otherwise bipartisan Ocean County Board of Elections.

Full Article: Ocean County NJ Republicans and Democrats fight over voting machines