PASCASCK VALLEY—Emerson, Township of Washington, and Woodcliff Lake saw long lines at the polls on Election Day Nov. 7; local officials said the lines were mainly due to greater than expected turnout and many voters’ unfamiliarity with the county’s new voting machines.
The Associated Press reported on Nov. 7 that nearly 124,000 New Jerseyans voted early (2% of 6.5 million registered voters statewide) and 407,000 voted via mail-in ballots (6.3% of NJ voters).
Of the 530,000 ballots cast before Election Day, Democrats turned in 320,000 ballots to Republicans’ 127,000 ballots, and 82,000 ballots cast by unaffiliated voters.
Superintendent of Elections Debra Francica told us, “There are always challenges rolling out a new voting system, which has not changed in 30 years. In November 2021, Bergen County rolled out this new voting system for early voting, and has had five successful early voting elections since then in addition to seven special elections and one primary this year all using the new technology without issues.”
Francica said, “After the Nov. 7 election we discovered that the Board of Elections did not mandate training for all poll workers for this election and consequently half of the 1,716 workers (49.8%) or 854 workers never returned for training since the June (6) [rimary five months ago. Many of the problems the voters experienced at the polls could have been avoided and solved if the poll workers had proper training reinforcement.”
Moreover, soon after the Nov. 7 elections were completed, two high-ranking county officials were both critical of the lack of required training for poll workers on the new equipment, and other problems.
County Executive James Tedesco and County Commissioners Chair Richard Sullivan wrote elections officials Nov. 10: “Unfortunately, the presence of malfunctioning machines, insufficiently trained poll workers, and the long lines many voters experienced during an off-year state election with relatively low turnout are concerning, especially ahead of the upcoming 2024 presidential election.”
In a letter addressed to Francica, County Clerk John Hogan, and Board of Elections members, and copied to 15 county elections officials, Tedesco and Sullivan raised concerns about new voting machines, untrained or under-trained poll workers, prolonged reporting time for election results, and lack of education about how to use the new machines.
The officials requested Francica and Hogan “prepare a detailed plan … [to] ensure our entire election system is prepared for the 2024 election. We urge you to consider allocating a serious investment of funds from your respective offices towards public awareness campaigns to introduce the new machines to voters, explain the changes in process, and continue to encourage both early voting and vote-by-mail.”
“We urge you to consider allocating a serious investment of funds from your respective offices towards public awareness campaigns to introduce the new machines to voters, explain the changes in process, and continue to encourage both early voting and vote-by-mail,” the officials said.
“We believe it is imperative that you work collaboratively to rectify these issues and implement measures that will prevent their recurrence in the future. You must ensure the voting experience is reliable, secure, efficient, and accessible to the public, and we believe that an open and transparent dialogue on this matter is essential to maintaining public trust in our electoral process,” wrote Tedesco and Sullivan.
They charged that elections officials previously said the new Dominion machines would expedite the reporting of results but said that did not occur.
County Clerk John Hogan told Pascack Press that some changes would be made.
“Concerning election night reporting, the part that is my office’s responsibility, we are examining several new actions to speed up the process. This includes sending some of my staff members out to gather the SD (Secure Digital) cards (election results) from the town clerks and enhancing the SD cards readers,” Hogan told us.
Hogan wrote, “Since Election Day, my staff and I have had numerous meetings to reexamine processes and procedures.” He said two “proactive steps” being discussed are the potential of securing a larger, state-certified server due to issues with server response times; and “instead of receiving all the results from all 70 towns at our office, we are examining processes used by Essex and Morris counties for election night reporting.”
Hogan said “No one ever claimed,” as alleged by Tedesco and Sullivan, that the new Dominion machines had the ability to report numbers instantly to the county clerk’s office following poll closings.
“What in fact did improve was that all early voting results were immediately reported, followed shortly thereafter by the initial vote-by-mail count,” Hogan wrote.
Previously, he said mail-in vote totals had to be manually entered by staff, thereby delaying reporting of results.
“One election system gave us the opportunity to present consolidated reports from the Bergen County Clerk and the Board of Elections for the first time,” Hogan said.
Hogan said due to Bergen’s 70 towns and being the most populated county statewide, he and predecessors have “firmly stood against voting machine results reported remotely (or) electronically…due to concerns about potential exposure to ‘hacking.’” He said nearly half of towns had not reported local results to the clerk’s office by 10 p.m., and the final three towns did not arrive until about midnight.
Emerson
Emerson Mayor Danielle DiPaola told us, “I had an experience myself where a blank ballot came out. I know that we were running very short on paper and thinking that we were actually going to run out of paper.”
She noted at one polling place there appeared to be “a couple of glitches and not enough training” and said she read an article pointing out that Bergen County elections officials were taking “a better look” at how the new Dominion voting machines performed due to some reported problems, including an identified lack of training of many poll workers.
The Nov. 7 election was only the second countywide election the new machines were used for, after their initial use in the June primary election.
DiPaola said, “We had a lot of these problems and we only had a 39% turnout of registered voters in Emerson.” She said she recalled that last year Emerson had the second highest turnout in the county. She noted the 2024 election will be a presidential election. “Next year you need to make a plan to vote because if we have these same machines, we want everybody to have the opportunity to vote and don’t want anybody waiting for long periods of time.”
Township of Washington
Township of Washington Clerk Susan Witkoswki said though there were long lines at polling stations at some points throughout Election Day, most voters took any short waits in stride. She said her poll workers were “phenomenal, courteous and diligent” and were busy throughout.
She said based on the high turnout—3,151 voters or nearly 41% of registered voters—cast ballots in a hotly contested six person race for three council seats, poll workers were constantly busy assisting voters. Federal, state and county offices were up for election.
She said at one point she worked the polls to give some poll workers a break, noting workers have alternate ways to look up a registered voter. She said if a voter brings in his or her sample ballot, or a driver’s license, that can help to expedite registration.
“It’s a new process and a lot of people don’t like change. Maybe people will remember it more in spring after doing it now,” she added. She said the township did not experience problems with the new machines, although lines did develop.”
“We can just do the best we can. we train, we do it twice a year (primary and general election). “If you didn’t like the lines, you have early-voting or a mail-in ballot,” said Witkowski.
Woodcliff Lake
Woodcliff Lake Borough Clerk Debbie Dakin said some lines were longer than usual at polling stations because the Dominion machines “were brand new to people” and for some voters, “you had to explain the whole process.”
She said for some elderly voters, including those with walkers, having to walk with their printed ballots to the ballot scanner was difficult for many to negotiate.