Union County Live Streams Ballot Counting For 2020 Election

UNION COUNTY, NJ — Union County residents can watch live as their votes are counted on and before Election night. The Union County Board of Elections is now live-streaming the ballot process.

The live stream offers two different perspectives for residents in real-time via live stream. Viewers can see a view of the tabulation machines as well as a view the Board of Elections employees opening and prepping ballots. Watch the live stream here - ucnj.org/boe/live-camera-feeds.

"The Board of Elections has worked hard to make this new voting reality as seamless as possible for voters within Union County," said Union County Board of Elections Administrator, Nicole DiRado. "Vote-by-Mail is a reliable, secure and accurate way to vote and providing residents the opportunity see the ballot processing live instills further trust and confidence in the process."

The New Jersey State Legislature passed a trio of election laws in August that included a provision allowing counties for the first time ever to begin the counting of ballots to begin as early as 10 days before polls close to mitigate the large volume of paper ballots being mailed in due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting this past Saturday, counties in New Jersey can start running ballots through scanning machines, which read and record the colored circles and translate them into vote counts.

The machines keep running tallies in memory that are not readily available to those working at the Board of Elections processing ballots. It is prohibited by law to disclose any election results before polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. Disclosure of such information is a third-degree offense and is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.

For additional instructions on filling out a Vote-by-Mail ballot, as well as locations of official ballot drop boxes within Union County, visit the Board of Elections online at ucnj.org/boe.To contact the Board of Elections call 908-527-4123 or email ucboe@ucnj.org.

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