BOE Election Results Skewed by Faulty Essex County Data

Bloomfield officials released new BOE election results on Wednesday, saying the figures published by the Essex County Clerk’s office on Tuesday night were wrong.

“The county had a problem,” said Bloomfield’s Deputy Municipal Clerk Bonita Triola on Wednesday afternoon.  “One of the machines didn’t work.  That’s why there’s a difference in the numbers.”

This news may come as a shock to many, especially those who believed the tight race between incumbent board member Diana Fuller and newcomer Kent Weisert was .  According to figures published by the Essex County Clerk’s office on Tuesday, Weisert beat Fuller by 1,022 to 1,018 votes.  However, new figures published by the Township of Bloomfield say Weisert won by 33 votes, or 1,1108 to 1,075.

“I am infuriated,” said newly re-elected BOE President Mary Shaughnessy on Wednesday night.  “When I called the Essex County Clerk’s office, they said they had problems reading the one of the machine cartridges but they weren't going to fix the numbers until their webmaster came in on Friday. Nobody in the entire building has a password to enter the website to punch in four numbers?"

Shaughnessy said all the candidates’ totals were affected; her own vote differential was 103.  “Bloomfield’s numbers are correct, not the county’s.”

Triola said the mistake occurred because “the county figures are uploaded automatically to the website” immediately after the election and that, generally, it is only when someone notices a discrepancy that an error is discovered.

In the case of Bloomfield’s election, the 33 votes did not alter the outcome of the election.  Still, the alleged miscalculation may cast doubt on the accuracy of the county’s record-keeping.  Especially because, according to Shaughnessy, the clerk’s office does not intend to change the figures printed on their website until Friday, when the provisional votes are counted.

“I said, ‘This is unbelievable!  You’ve knowingly publishing wrong numbers'," she fumed.  "It’s a real disservice to the people who worked so hard for this.  You fight for every single vote.”

Patch spoke with the Essex County Clerk Christopher J. Durkin on Thursday, who confirmed that the Bloomfield Municipal Clerk’s office indeed had the correct numbers.

“What happened was, the voting machine at Brookdale School wasn’t programmed to our results,” said Durkin.  “The paper results [from the Bloomfield Municipal Clerk’s office] came out and were correct.   But the cartridge in the machine wasn’t programmed for the results.  So when we read it, it said “100% results reported’.” 

He added, “We do the cartridges first and then go to the paper results.  At 7:00 [Wednesday] morning, we saw that the paper results added up to a different margin and a different result.”

In fact, Durkin explained that the way the system is set up, three different entities are involved in tabulating the results of any given election, to make sure no one office has complete control of the process.

“It’s a checks and balances system, so no one controls the whole election,” he said. 

According to Durkin, the three entities are the Superintendent of Elections, who maintains and programs the voting, the Board of Elections, which hires and trains board workers and the County Clerk’s office, which tallies up the votes on election night.  He noted that the Superintendent of Elections is also the Commissioner of Registration.

“In a way we’re at the mercy of the programming office,” said Durkin.

Tonight the provisional votes will be added to the final results, he said, but because there are only nine provisional votes they will not alter the election’s outcome.

The figures listed here were released on Wednesday by the Bloomfield Municipal Clerk's office: www.bloomfieldtwpnj.com

To see the figures published on Tuesday night by the Essex County Clerk's office, click

Total for Ward 1

Total for Ward 2

Total for Ward 3