HACKENSACK—With mail-in ballots already coming back, early voting starting Oct. 24, and the Nov. 3 General Election day only four weeks away, county elections officials joined with the League of Women Voters officials Sept. 22 to answer frequently asked questions from voters.
In a League of Women Voters webinar broadcast Sept. 22, two top Bergen County elections officials — representing the County Clerk’s Elections Division and the Board of Elections — told voters that mail-in ballots went out to about 76,000 registered mail-in voters before Sept. 19, and even earlier to voters living overseas and in the military.
And on Wed., Sept. 22, the first day of ballot collection from drop boxes, Board of Elections Chair Richard Miller said 750 ballots had been collected that day from 35 drop boxes countywide. “We want a fair, honest, and safe election and that’s what we’re here to do,” Miller said.
County Clerk Elections Division Supervisor Sabrina Taranto said “there’s been a lot of misinformation for years” about elections and noted that residents should seek out information from trusted county elections officials or their municipal clerk rather than social media.
In the last two General Elections, Taranto’s office has distributed a print flyer to all registered voters that addresses “election disinformation,” which is information “designed to mislead, undermine trust in elections, and discourage you from voting.” A flyer is planned to go out prior to this year’s Nov. 3 election, she said.
Early voting runs nine days before the election, from Oct. 24 through Nov. 1 at 10 countywide locations, where registered voters in any Bergen County town can cast early ballots. A Mahwah location at Bergen County’s Law & Public Safety Institute is new this year.
Miller said Sept. 22 that he anticipated receiving more than 60,000 vote-by-mail ballots in the Nov. 3 General Election, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rejection of President Donald J. Trump’s executive order to implement a new mail-in voting system controlled by the U.S. Postal Service. That order was halted and will not go into effect, the court ruled.
On Sept. 14, the U.S. Supreme Court nixed Trump’s executive order that would have required the postal service to pre-approve ballot envelope designs and require states to provide lists of all voters receiving mail-in ballots. The SCOTUS ruling came after two federal judges previously issued stays. Under the U.S. Constitution, states are responsible for elections and election administration, not the federal government.
The executive order’s requirements would have likely disenfranchised “a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee and mail-in ballots,” according to a prior federal court decision.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, Governor Mikie Sherrill issued a statement: “Once again, a court has halted Trump’s attack on vote by mail and this time, it’s by a judge Trump appointed. That’s because the Constitution is clear: states run elections, not the federal government,” Sherrill said.
Only a week after the ruling, the League of Women Voters Interleague Organization held a livestreamed 90-minute webinar. Titled Voting and Security: Bergen County Election Officials Answer Your Questions, the Q&A session featured Taranto and Miller. LWV officials Ilene Kahn and Nike Bach moderated the session, assisted by LWV’s Elissa Kapp. You can view the recording of the event here.
‘Unlawful’ to have police at polls
One topic focused on what a voter could do if they saw election interference occurring, such as an ICE agent, or FBI, or police outside a polling place. Taranto said that it is “unlawful” to have officers or police stationed outside a polling place.
She said “no uniformed officers” can be at polling places unless they’re responding to an active threat at the polling place. “You cannot have National Guard or ICE agents patrolling” outside a polling place, Taranto said. She said it was a “federal law and a federal crime” to have armed law enforcement at a polling place.
Miller said if an individual is causing a disturbance inside or outside of a polling place, he advised voters to request that the onsite Super Poll Worker be notified and they should handle the situation. Also, municipal clerks can be notified, and like the Super Poll Worker, they can ask the individual to leave the premises.
In a worse case scenario, Miller said elections officials can get speedy counsel from a state government attorney and judge on how to handle a situation. Taranto said that voters will not be encountering any troops or police outside their local polling stations. “It’s just not happening. You’re not going to see patrols at the polls, it’s not something for voters to worry about,” she added.
35 secure drop boxes for mail ballots
Miller explained when vote-by-mail ballots are collected daily from 35 drop boxes countywide, they are collected by one Democrat and one Republican, accompanied by a sheriff’s officer, logged, and delivered in a sealed bag back to the county clerk’s office. Then the ballots are logged into the county’s system and then scanned by ballot readers that record the votes.
Paper copies of the ballots are kept for later election audits. The county’s system is not online and the scanned ballots are not transmitted over the internet, officials said. The county’s 35 drop boxes are monitored 24/7 by security cameras, Miller said, and all boxes will be emptied for the last time, locked and sealed at 8 p.m., Nov. 3, when the election ends.
Taranto said the vote by mail packets have a new look, including a newly designed inner certificate where mail-in ballots are to be sealed, plus a new instruction guide and mailing envelope. A brochure mailed to voters called, “3 Ways to Vote In The Nov. 3 General Election,” discusses the new updates for “simple, safe and secure voting by mail.”
Taranto suggested that someone mailing a ballot through the U.S. Postal Service should ask for the ballot to be manually postmarked on the date it is being mailed. Generally, the officials recommend using a secure drop box to send back mail-in ballots, as these are collected daily up to and including Election Day.
Miller noted that recently about 32,000 individuals were removed from the county’s registered voter rolls due to those individuals either passing away or moving out of state. If a Sample Ballot is received for an individual no longer at the address cited.
Taranto suggested residents simply mark the Sample Ballot with “return to sender” and note if the person has moved, passed away, or no longer lives there. That allows the Supt. of Elections Office to remove the person from voting rolls, she said. Copies of all 70 towns’ Sample Ballots can also be found on the county clerk’s website.
Taranto said that complete election results are certified by 15 days after the election. Vote by mail results are generally posted shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, followed by early voting tallies, she said.
Election Day results, which comprise the majority of voting on elections, are added last. Voting results are not official until all qualifying late-arrival ballots are counted, plus provisionals, she said.
Provisional ballots are used when the registered voter may have been sent a mail-in ballot, or is confused about whether they voted, or simply wants to vote in person. Sometimes a person claims not to have voted but their registration information shows they voted. In that case, those individuals are offered a provisional ballot until it can be determined whether they voted.
“Even if someone does try (to vote twice), only one ballot can be counted per person,” Taranto said. And only one vote is counted per person, she stressed. Miller said previously about 10,000 provisional ballots were cast, and about 4,000 of those voters had already voted by mail.
She told us, “Don’t be discouraged from voting. Vote early if you can. If you have a mail-in ballot, use it and put it in a drop box rather than opting to vote provisionally at the polls. Bring your Sample Ballot with you to the polls for faster check-in,” she advised.
Taranto noted that Nov. 9 is the deadline for receipt of timely mailed postmarked mail-in ballots (six days after election) and Nov. 14 is the deadline for receipt of cure forms for mail-in ballots.
For more election information, contact https://www.bergencountyclerk.gov/ or your municipal clerk. The County Clerk’s Office lists information under the Elections & Voting tab, and provides election and voting updates on its home page regularly. Often, news banners scroll across the page to alert visitors to updates about elections.
The New Jersey Department of State Division of Elections coordinates the statewide Voter Information Portal, and provides election information at https://www.nj.gov/state/elections/vote.shtml.
Important upcoming dates: Oct. 13 is voter registration deadline for the General Election; Oct. 21 is the mailing of Sample Ballots for the General Election; Vote By Mail applications are due Oct. 27.
To avoid Election Day lines or inclement weather, county election officials recommend voters consider voting by mail or early voting starting Oct. 24 at one of 10 polling locations.