Ballots Go Missing In Mercer County After Voting Machine Glitch, Officials Say

(This post has been updated at 3:30 p.m. with additional information)

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — Hundreds if not thousands of ballots have gone missing in Mercer County after voting machines malfunctioned on Tuesday, officials said.

Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried said he was informed on Wednesday evening by Mercer County officials that ballots from one district had gone missing.

“The fundamentals of Democracy is that every vote would be counted. Clearly, this has yet to happen in Robbinsville, as approximately 11% of our residents' votes have yet to be safely delivered and tallied,” Fried said.

Meanwhile, ballots from three districts in Princeton were not received by the county election board.

Mayor Mark Freda said he has been in touch with County officials Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as well. The Mayor was informed that the ballots may "still be in the voting machines" and the Board of Elections is seeking a court order to open the machines to confirm if this is the case.

The machine is expected to be opened 1 p.m. Thursday, at the election warehouse. The public can attend, Freda said.

UPDATE: Mercer County election officials went to court on Thursday for permission to open storage compartments of voting machines to determine if any ballots were left behind.
Superior Court Judge William Anklowitz approved the request.

In Princeton, the school board race is tight with only a few hundred votes separating newcomer Rita Rafalovsky and incumbent Debbie Bronfeld.

The Robbinsville mayor called the incident in his township an “unconscionable mishap,” and said he was working with County and election officials to trace the missing ballots.

“We’re working with the County, which is in charge of our elections, but please know we will not rest until we get to the bottom of this unconscionable mishap, and we will not consider the 2022 election over in Robbinsville until every single ballot is counted and done so securely," Fried said.

On Tuesday, after the machine malfunction was reported across the County, the County Board of Elections said they had a "contingency plan" in place for all ballots cast. Nathaniel Walker, Mercer County Superintendent of Elections said ballots will be scanned at the secure Board of Elections office. More: Voting Machine Issues Reported In Mercer Co. On Election Day: Clerk

"Every ballot that has been cast will be counted, no voter will be disenfranchised, and the integrity of the election is intact and secure," Walker had said.

Despite the issues with voting machines, the paper-based election system allowed the election to go forward, County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello said.

“We were able to bring all of the ballots back to the Board of Elections where that bi-partisan commission processed the ballots high-capacity scanners at their central location. Every vote was counted.”

Meanwhile, the issue with the voting machines is now a criminal investigation, Sollami-Covello told Patch.

“I reported this to the Prosecutor to investigate as to whether this scanning problem occurred based on an error or whether something was intentionally done to create chaos and distrust in the election system,” Sollami-Covello said. “We are not suspicious of any specific wrongdoing, but we do need to investigate the matter fully.”

“At the end of the day, as County Clerk, I must certify the election results so I do have an interest in the integrity of our system,” Sollami-Covello said.

Write-in votes, provisional votes, and outstanding vote-by-mail ballots are yet to be counted in Mercer County. But election day counts are complete, officials said.

(This story will be updated when Patch receives a comment from the County Board of Elections)

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