New Voting Machines Coming To Ocean County

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Ocean County voters will be casting their in-person ballots on new voting machines when they go to the polls this election year.

The Ocean County Board of Commissioners has approved the purchase of the new machines — 850 machines for Election Day voting and 72 for early voting — from Election Systems and Software for $9.4 million, the county announced.

The new equipment is anticipated to be in place for the Primary Election on June 6, and county officials said they anticipate receiving a $2 million credit from Election Systems and Software for the county's existing voting machines.

The election day polling machines the county has used since 1996 are Sequoia Voting Systems AVC Advantage voting machines. They are fully electronic but do not have a paper backup for each individual vote, NJ Spotlight and Jersey Shore Online reported.

The new Election Systems and Software machines make it easier for voters to cast their ballots, "especially during early voting when a paper ballot is produced as part of the voting process," county officials said.

The county also is purchasing a newer software version of the machines, "which include greater safety protocols insuring ballots can only be read once."

The hope is to prevent a problem that arose in Monmouth County during the 2022 election. Results on USB flash drive media were read twice, affecting vote tallies in four towns and changing the outcome of one election, the Asbury Park Press reported.

The new machines also will mean the county will have one vendor providing all of its voting machines.

“By replacing all of our voting machines we will provide uniformity and familiarity for the voters,” Commissioner Virginia Haines said. “Training our poll workers will be easier and we will not have to merge data between two different brands of voting machines.”

In 2021, Ocean County purchased 100 machines for early voting for $2.6 million from Dominion Voting Systems, the county's choice out of four companies certified by the state to supply voting machines. The state was reimbursing the cost of those early voting machines, under the mandate that required the early voting provision.

Ocean County Clerk Scott Colabella said there were no issues with the Dominion equipment in the 2021 election. Dominion is suing Fox Corp. for $1.6 billion for defamation, saying its Fox News hosts knew claims by President Donald Trump of vote rigging were lies, a Reuters report said.

Election Systems & Software was the company recommended by the county's election board staff in 2021 when the early voting equipment was purchased.

The county's new purchase includes all ancillary equipment, software, licensing and maintenance costs.

County officials said the county will publish an instructional video for voters on how to operate the machines closer to the primary election.