A vote cartridge from East Hanover that is expected to be read today may reveal whether Republican Freeholder incumbent Margaret Nordstrom or challenger William “Hank” Lyon won the primary nomination Tuesday night.
As of this morning Lyon, a resident of the Towaco section of Montville who works for his familys restaurant business, Qdoba Mexican Grill, had a six-vote lead over Nordstrom, a freeholder since 1999.
The unofficial tallies are Lyon with 12,234 votes and Nordstrom with 12, 228 votes. But one vote cartridge in East Hanover could not be read last night so county election officials today got a court order from Superior Court Assignment Judge Thomas Weisenbeck to have the cartridge removed from the voting machine and brought to the Morris County Clerks office where it will be read and recorded by witnesses.
If that cartridge doesnt decide the outcome, county Board of Election commissioners are scheduled on Monday to count provisional ballots.
Those refer to the paper ballots that voters fill out on Election Day if they moved within the county but failed to register their new address for voting purposes. Provisional ballots also are used by voters who registered for the primary — in this case by May 17 — but whose names somehow didnt make it into the poll books on time. The exact number of provisional ballots to be counted was not immediately available but they would include Democrats, who would not have a say in the Republican primary.
Full Article: Troublesome voting machine cartridge from East Hanover likely to decide Morris freeholder race | Daily Record | dailyrecord.com.