Nearly two-and-a-half weeks after the predominantly mail-in July 7 primary election, Bergen County elections officials finally certified the results and one top official told Pascack Press that “if [the governor] does this again there’s going to be chaos.”
The top county official was referring to the July 7 mostly vote-by-mail primary ordered by Gov. Phil Murphy in mid-May, which led to nearly 21,000 “provisional ballots” being cast in the 70 municipalities in Bergen County.
Overall in the county on July 7, of 245,815 registered Democrats, 104,253 cast ballots, with 84,620 for presumptive Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden and 15,242 for former Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders resigned from the race a couple months ago. Some 3,683 Democratic ballots were rejected.
On the Republican side, of 139,080 registered voters, 38,604 cast ballots, with 34,167 votes for incumbent President Donald J. Trump who ran unopposed. Some 1,447 Republican ballots were rejected. Final vote tallies were provided by John S. Hogan, county clerk.
‘Going to be chaos’
“It took us over two weeks to get 20,000-plus provisional ballots certified and counted and that’s only for a primary election. For a general election, God knows what we’ll get…if he does this again [vote by mail election] it’s going to be chaos,” said Patricia DiCostanzo, county superintendent of elections.
DiCostanzo said the more than 20,000 provisional ballots were the most-ever cast in Bergen County over her 32 years with the county.
The original primary election date was June 2 but Murphy ordered it delayed until July 7 due to Covid-19 concerns. His executive order required mail-in ballots to be sent to all registered voters statewide. In Bergen County, voters received both a mail-in ballot and a local “sample ballot.”
The sample ballot—similar to ballots issued for regular elections —provided information on local elections and central vote-by-mail dropoff locations for voters uneasy with or unsure of mailing their ballot via regular U.S. mail. A mail-in ballot was also mailed to the county’s 650,000 registered voters. Bergen County has the largest number of voters of any county in New Jersey.
Some confusion occurred with voters not understanding whether they could still vote in-person and on a voting machine, said DiCostanzo, and she said her staff fielded “thousands” of calls from voters and local officials with questions on who could vote on a machine, provisional ballots and other election issues.
She said nine staff members were assigned to answer calls on primary day due to so many questions about the mail-in primary.
Officials sent out 650,000 vote-by-mail ballots to registered voters and received 124,000 back, a participation rate of 19 percent. Moreover, the number of provisional ballots cast took over two weeks to certify and count by hand, said DiCostanzo.
Provisional ballots—or paper ballots where voters mark circles to indicate their choices—were cast by voters preferring to vote in-person on Election Day. Voting by machine was only available to voters with a disability who could not vote by mail or provisional ballot.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said DiCostanzo of the weeks of long days verifying almost 21,000 provisional ballots. She said she hoped that the governor would be consulting elections officials statewide before moving ahead with a decision to possibly hold the fall elections by mail.
Statewide, county elections officials have set a tentative mid-August deadline to be notified by the governor’s office if a mostly mail-in ballot will be mandated, DiCostanzo said, noting preparations need to occur early for a mostly mail-in vote, likely on a scale never seen before for a presidential election.
“First of all I’d love to have the voting machine back,” said DiCostanzo, noting thousands of people stood on line—at 6-foot distances—to cast in-person provisional ballots on July 7.
‘Turn out in droves’
“We got over 20,000 for a primary where the presidential nomination was not contested. What do you think will happen during the November presidential election? They’ll turn out in droves,” she said.
DiCostanzo said she had to ask her staff to stay late most nights to complete the counting by the state-imposed July 23 certification deadline. She said she would prefer to offer in-person machine voting in November with an option for voters to receive a mail-in ballot if they have Covid-19 related concerns.
DiCostanzo said there were so many questions, concerns and issues related to the mostly mail-in primary, she met with her Board of Elections supervisors every day to address them and provide needed information to local officials.
DiCostanzo said one major bone to pick with state elections officials was the state’s lack of an effective public information campaign to alert registered voters to the new July 7 primary date as well as explain the governor’s order requiring registered voters to file a mail-in ballot and not go to a voting place. Towns were required to have one polling place open with a voting machine for those with a disability, she said.
Other elections superintendents have voiced similar concerns about the lack of a public information campaign coming from the state.
A Rutgers University poll in spring showed support for a mostly mail-in election split sharply along party lines: While 70 percent of registered Democrats supported a mail-in election, 72 percent of Republicans opposed it.
Citing rejected ballots, ballots mailed to deceased voters and issues with the U.S. mail, state Republican Chairman Doug Steinhardt told nj.com that “it’s impossible for people to have confidence in this system…there were dozens of problems both big and small,” he said of the primary voting.
Meanwhile, a state Democratic spokesman called the July 7 primary “by and large a success.”
Bergen County’s official primary results are contained in a 207-page final summary and can be accessed at http://www.bergencountyclerk.org/Election.
DiCostanzo said the voter registration deadline for the Nov. 3 election is Oct. 13.