Op-Ed: An Election Day Audit in Every County

Several months ago, Montclair Democrat County Chairman and Freeholder-at-Large Brendan Gill authored an op-ed touting Essex County’s new voting machines which he says feature a voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).

I replied by pointing out that despite the new system, 12 Republican votes from Montclair Ward 3, District 4 were lost during the June 2021 Republican primary. Those votes have never been found and no known effort has been made to find them by County officials. In fact, as of this writing, the Essex County Board of Elections — (being represented by the New Jersey Attorney General in the Appellate Court) — continues to fight my efforts to find the lost votes or even reveal what happened to them.

But the story of how poorly Essex County cares for the conduct and integrity of our elections is even worse than that.

Recently, every County in the state submitted an audit report related to the 2022 general election. In every case but one, counties described in some way which election districts were chosen for the audit, what the Election Day results were, what the audit results were, what the difference was, and, if there were discrepancies, the reasons for them.

For example, Cape May County reports, “In each Municipality, the hand to eye audit was 100% consistent with the scanned tally report.”

While Gloucester County says:

In each batch, the hand to eye audit is listed in the table above reflecting audit to machine accuracy. Paper ballots which contained an overvote for a particular contest were recorded as an overvote and did not count as a vote.

But Essex County was the lone outlier listing only which election districts were chosen for the audit and not showing what the tally was before and after. What kind of "audit" is that?

If this deficient report was a lone instance of opacity, it might be excused pending the release of an actual audit report. But Essex County is becoming notoriously resistant to releasing any election-related information while other counties make corresponding information readily and easily available.

Montclair political activists on both sides of the aisle have long made the security and integrity of our elections a top issue for the last two decades particularly with respect to voting machines and voter verifiable paper audit trails.

Many now believe our new election machinery can achieve that end. But how can we be sure if the audit reports are so bereft of critical details?

Mr. Gill, the Montclair Township Council, and all Montclair voters should join in demanding a thorough and transparent audit report without delay. We deserve the same transparency that the people of every other County in New Jersey enjoy.

Michael D. Byrne, Chairman
Montclair Republican County Committee, Inc.