A poll worker’s error has resulted in a court order to open two voting machines in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
The incident occurred in Manalapan, according to the New Jersey Globe.
Deputy Attorney General George Cohen said Thursday that a poll worker “inadvertently failed to get vote results” before the machine was sealed.
Cohen stated that a poll worker took two USB drives from the system prior to the final transfer of the results. Because one has findings and the other does not, officials are uncertain about the real outcomes.
Judge David Bauman has authorized the Monmouth County Superintendent of Elections to open the voting machines.
“The entire process will be bi-partisan,” Cohen said to the judge.
Unknown is whether the machine’s results could alter Tuesday’s elections.
According to CentralJersey.com, vote totals announced on Wednesday revealed that the two candidates elected to the Township Committee had comfortable margins over their opponents.
Mary Ann Musich, who received 8,988 votes, and Eric Nelson, who received 8,746 votes, were shown to be the winners of the two seats, according to preliminary findings. Jamie Herr garnered 5,082 votes, while Lisa Lenn received 5,055 votes.
According to northjersey.com, Mercer County, New Jersey, has also encountered machine problems.
Tuesday scanning issues with Dominion Voting Systems equipment necessitated a substantial number of paper ballots in the county.
Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello asked the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office 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 officials are “not suspicious of any specific wrongdoing,” but they “do need to investigate the matter fully.”
According to northjersey.com, Mercer County Superior Court Judge William Anklowitz accepted an order to unlock the voting machines on Thursday.
In addition to the scanning issues, certain precincts in Mercer County have reported missing votes.
“Out of an abundance of caution the superintendent and board would like to go in to open all of the tabulator storage compartments that have both a main compartment and an emergency ballot compartment to ensure that any votes cast during the Nov. 8, 2022 general election have been collected and to make sure none are inadvertently left in those compartments,” Cohen said at the Mercer County hearing.
Ankowitz granted the request.
“There are paper ballots that would usually be scanned in and instead of being scanned. They were to be put inside of the machine for security until they were able to be collected and counted,” he said. “To make sure that there is nothing left behind in the machines and that every vote is counted, the court agrees with the position of the superintendent that the machines can be checked to make sure.”