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: 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