A Salem County recount case highlights the fact that New Jersey isn't prepared to fend off possible vote-count chaos in the hotly contested 2016 election.
A current legal tussle over provisional and mail-in ballots in last year's Salem County freeholder race is a stark reminder that efforts to enhance the integrity of voting have fallen by the wayside all over New Jersey.
As a Superior Court judge hears evidence why certain freeholder ballots marked last fall should count or be disqualified, we're at the doorstep of another presidential election with no discernible improvement to ensure that all votes cast in 2016 by New Jersey citizens will be counted.
Wow! It's now 16 years and four presidential election cycles since the "hanging chad" fiasco in Florida handed the hotly disputed 2000 prize to George W. Bush, with a little help from the U.S. Supreme Court. The Salem County judge will merely decide whether or not one Democrat will displace one Republican, who was declared the winner last fall, on a seven-member freeholder board. Seven votes separated the candidates on election night, as well as after an administrative recount.
Although ballot security remains a challenge all over New Jersey, the way Salem County handles its voting is particularly outdated and porous. While the voting is electronic, cartridges from voting booths must be physically transported from polling places to a central location before any votes can be counted. This system isn't just susceptible to tamperers and hackers, it's susceptible to carjackers.
RELATED: Salem County voters testify on whether signatures are theirs.
The security issue has come up in the hearings before Superior Court Judge David W. Morgan. This involves some so-called "provisional ballots" that were cast on paper, not machines. The chain-of-custody vulnerabilities, however, are the same: The ballots were brought to Board of Elections headquarters from Salem and Penns Grove in bags that were unlocked. The election board initially threw out these provisional ballots, which were cast by voters whose registration cannot be verified at a polling site.
Most New Jersey counties now have voting machines from which election night results can be downloaded and transmitted instantaneously to the election board. Salem County's extra horse-and-buggy-era step that wastes fuel and personnel time ought to be eliminated as soon as fiscally possible.
Don't think the rest of New Jersey is off the hook, however. The wrangling over the 2000 election brought promises that, in the near future, computerized/electronic voting systems would provide a backup paper trail -- either stored in the machine or as a receipt given to each voter. A 2005 state law ordered the upgrade. What's happened since? Not much. Implementation was delayed indefinitely in 2009 for financial reasons.
The state took its chances in 2012 by letting Hurricane Sandy-displaced voters cast email ballots. Assessments of how well the program worked were mixed. If secure software can be developed, the idea holds promise. Meanwhile, New Jersey's non-retrofitted systems remain perched on the edge of vote-count disaster.
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