Ocean County Polling Places Using New Poll Books, Old Voting Machines

OCEAN COUNTY, NJ — New electronic poll books in use for the 2021 General Election in New Jersey created some delays at some polling sites in Ocean County, election officials said Tuesday morning.

Ocean County Clerk Scott A. Colabella said reports of issues at polling places were due to the new electronic poll books that are in use for this election.

Issues reported at one polling place in Lakewood, at Coventry Square, were related to construction, an election official said. There are signs directing voters how to get into the polling place and police officers on site as well, the official said.

The electronic poll books require the voter to sign in on a tablet, affirming they are voting legally in the election. Voters also sign a second booklet where they are given a slip to hand to a poll worker to cast their ballot.

While some parts of New Jersey were using new voting machines for the general election, Ocean County is using the same machines it has used for decades.

Ocean County in August authorized spending $2.6 million on new voting machines to meet a state mandate for early voting and providing a paper record of each vote cast. The paper record of the voter's choices allows the voter to verify it before handing the ballot to be scanned and their vote recorded.

The voting machines used at Ocean County's polling places Tuesday are the same Sequoia Voting Systems AVC Advantage voting machines that have been used since 1996 in the county. They are fully electronic but do not have a paper backup for each individual vote, NJ Spotlight and Jersey Shore Online reported.

In March, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation that requires voting machines that produce a voter-verifiable paper ballot, which allows for an election audit to do a 100 percent match with cast ballots.

Colabella said the new voting machines were "required for use during the Early Voting period only which ended on Sunday and worked fine."

The purchase of the new machines "was required by the State due to the necessity of offering a ballot style for all 33 towns on one machine for early voting, as well as requiring a paper trail," he said.

Alicia D'Alessandro, a spokesperson for state Department of State, which oversees the state Division of Elections, said the law required counties to purchase the machines only for early voting, and said those machines then were secured as required under the state's election rules until the election is certified.

The state is reimbursing all 21 counties for the cost of the new machines as well as the electronic poll book equipment "and mandated expenses due to early voting, because the state imposed the requirement, she said.

D'Alessandro said information that circulated in the weeks leading up to the election, including candidates' statements that voters would receive receipts for their votes, created some confusion, and said the law only addressed early voting, not the equipment counties have been using for years. That decision remains up to each county's officials, she said.

Replacing all of the county's voting machines — Ocean County has more than 800 voting machines "would cost far more than $2.6 million," D'Alessandro said.

Voters who cast their ballots early were able to vote at any of 10 locations in Ocean County. An election official said there were 10 voting machines set up at each location and they were able to pull up the correct ballot for any municipality in Ocean County.

The machines used for early voting are made by Dominion, one of four companies certified by the state to supply voting machines. D'Alessandro said each county's officials were able to choose from among those four companies.

There were arguments during the summer over the Ocean County Board of Commissioners choosing Dominion to supply the machines, instead of Election Systems & Software, a company recommended by the county's election board staff. Among the allegations were that campaign contributions to county officials influenced that vote, according to minutes of the Aug. 18 commissioners' meeting. County officials have denied that contributions played a role in the Dominion choice.

Note: This article has been updated and clarified with comment from the state Department of State's Division of Elections.

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