Voting machine problems force Middletown, N.J. to use the paper ballot

Nothing like getting your name mentioned ....


by Andrew Lagomarsino - newjerseynewsroom.com 

MIDDLETOWN, N.J. - You can call me Nervous Nellie, but I was always leary and afraid of the computerized vote. Afraid that it might vanish without getting counted.
Well, I got my wish today.

The voting machines in Middletown, N.J., went a bit haywire at my polling place and paper ballots were the norm.

I sensed that this Election Day would be different because New Jersey scrambled to relocate scores of polling places that had become unusable because of power failures, flooding or evacuations.

So I walk into my regular polling location, Thorne Middle School in Port Monmouth, and was given an envelope in which to place a paper ballot that would be hand-counted.

I had to borrow a pen from a voting supervisor, and then proceeded to sit at a table and fill out the ballot. I made sure I was neat as I colored in all the circles for all the candidates I was voting for. Last time I voted like this, I believe, was for class president in high school.
But it got the job done.

"I have been at the Thorne polling location since 6 a.m. this morning acting as a Democratic challenger and to say that there are issues at the polls may be an understatement,” said Mike Morris.

“This voting location at Thorne represents 15 percent of Middletown voting districts (Districts 7,15,17, 26, 27,37 and 46) and I am now hearing about similar issues at most all the Middletown polling places.”

Middletown Township, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, has a total population of 66,522, making it New Jersey’s 16th largest municipality.

For some reason, the voting machines went a bit whacky when one voted on the two ballot questions regarding the higher education bond and judges benefits.

“The machines would register if you voted “yes” on both questions or “no” for each…but if you split and divided your vote, the voting machine had a problem,” added Morris.
Oh, the marvels of modern technology.

“I think it will be a very long night,” Morris deadpanned.

News From the Front: Problem With Voting Machines in Middletown

I have been at my polling location since 6am this morning acting as a Democratic challenger to say that there are issues at the polls may be an understatement at this time.

If you live in Districts 7,15,17, 26, 27,37 or 46 and are voting at Thorne Middle School this morning, located on Murphy Rd., be prepared to be there a little while. There are issues with all the voting machines.

There are  two ballot questions that are to be voted on today, as well as all the candidates for elective office.

 If you wish to vote on the ballot questions, as well as candidates, you must vote YES on each ballot question or NO on each ballot question for the voting machines to work properly, you can NOT split your ballot votes. If you wish to split your votes on the ballot question you must vote by paper ballot !

If you vote by paper ballot, than you must also vote for all the candidates on the paper ballot as well. You CAN NOT split your vote between the paper ballots and machine voting.

If you wish to NOT vote for the ballot questions, than you can vote for the candidates on the voting machines.

And some machines are not working at all and are waiting to be replaced.

Am I confusing anyone yet? I'm sure I am, so you can understand how people that have made it out to the polls feel thus far this morning.

This voting location represents ~15% of Middletown voting districts and I am now hearing about similar issues at other Middletown polling places.

A representative from the County Board of Elections showed up and said that there wasn't much that could be done other than what I described above.

I've been in contact with people from the State Democratic HQ who are currently looking into these issues. Hopefully these problems will be rectified soon; voters are not happy and are concerned about the integrity of their vote.

. All these machines need to be replaced ASAP before the lawyers get involved, otherwise this could really be a long day!!

I'll update this post as the day go on to let everyone know what happens.

*******
10:19 AM UPDATE - I now hear that all voting machines in Middletown are not working and paper ballots must be filled out.

2:35 PM UPDATE - Middletown Patch confirms voting problems

3:45 PM UPDATE - Voting machines for Districts 7, 17 & 27 are back online while Districts 15, 26, 37 & 46 are still being worked on.

Holt Issues Statement On NJ Court Decession Not To Require Paper Ballots With Voting Machines

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -

(West Windsor, NJ) – Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) today responded to the New Jersey Superior Court decision, which failed to require the expeditious deployment of paper ballots voting systems in New Jersey. The ruling found that “[s]ecurity vulnerabilities are present, to some degree, in every voting system. There is simply no such thing as a voting system that is impossible to manipulate.” Yet, the ruling allows for the continued use of New Jersey’s unauditable touch screen voting machines.

“If, as the court acknowledges, security vulnerabilities exist, then the court and the citizenry should want the possibility of audits capable of detecting and mistakes or misbehavior,” Holt said.

Holt has introduced legislation in Congress to create a national standard of voting to help ensure that every vote is recorded and counted as intended. The bill would require paper ballot voting systems accompanied by accessible ballot marking devices and require routine random audits of electronic voting tallies.

“The fundamental purpose of the lawsuit has been to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the vote tallies by requiring the use of paper ballots as the basis of those tallies,” Holt said. “Until New Jersey implements a paper ballot voting system, we will have faith-based voting,” Holt said.

Although the ruling requires New Jersey’s 11,000 voting machines to be re-evaluated by a panel of experts within 120 days to determine whether they are accurate and reliable, requires increased security measures, and prohibits connecting computers that are used for election duties from being connected to the Internet, the results they produce cannot be independently audited.

I happen to agree with Congressman Holt on this issue. Ensuring that each vote counts and that each vote is free from fraud is essential to our democracy. Not to have a paper back-up system to these electronic machines, that have been shown to be vulnerable to manipulation and failure is just plain crazy and needs to be rectified.

Case in point - This past November an electronic voting machine in my district failed during the last hour of the day. The poll workers were unable to reboot the machine in order to retrieve the result, hence the numbers from that machine were not recorded by the county election board and were not certified. In the big picture would those couple of hundred lost votes have made a difference in the outcome of the election? No, because the margin of victory was to large to have been swayed by those votes. But in elections that in the future are much closer those uncounted votes could have been the difference and changed the outcome of the race.

Reports of Voting Machine Breakdowns

I just got in from voting and have heard that there are a number of voting machine that need to be replaced, machines in and around Newark have broken down as well as here in Middletown.

In Middletown, my polling place Harmony School (Distrcit #37),  has one of its two machines down at the moment and the poll workers are waiting for a replacement.  This was a slight problem earlier due to people waiting outside to vote.

As for the other two machines at Harmony Schoolthat are used for District #15 voting, no issues have been reported about them so far.