Tuesday was the deadline to send ballots in a historic election that was conducted almost entirely through vote by mail amid the coronavirus across 33 municipalities in New Jersey — and already one city in Passaic County is facing some counting issues.
The Passaic County Board of Elections commissioners decided to not count 800 ballots, a county spokesman said. The decision comes after the federal Office of the Inspector General began to investigate ballots that were left on the floor of an apartment building in Paterson, U.S. postal service spokesman George Flood said.
Another incident involved Paterson ballots that were found bundled together in another municipality. The Record reported that 400 Paterson ballots were found in Haledon, 300 were found in South Paterson and another 100 were found elsewhere.
“U.S. Postal authorities informed the Passaic County Board of Elections about bundled vote-by-mail ballots within their possession,” said Passaic County spokesman Keith Furlong. “These ballots have been delivered to the county and set aside. Board of Elections Commissioners decided not to count 800-plus of these ballots yesterday.”
Any potential irregularities “will be handed off to the appropriate law enforcement agencies,” Furlong said in a statement. A spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office said it could not confirm or deny its involvement in any investigations.
The Paterson race will decide six ward seats.
The vote by mail method was ordered by Gov. Phil Murphy through an executive order, which also moved several elections that were supposed to take place in March and April to May 12. Residents in 33 municipalities in 10 counties cast ballots for council, school board, and, in one instance, a local fire district election.
Murphy stopped short of saying whether counting issues in cities like Paterson, which has a history of alleged voter fraud, would impact his decision on how to conduct the upcoming primaries. Those elections, which are more widespread, were pushed from June 2 to July 7.
“It’s largely too early to give you a full answer, but we need to make a decision on the July 7 election," Murphy said in a daily press briefing on Wednesday. "So you can imagine we’re digesting yesterday pretty aggressively.”
Tossing 800 ballots could soon spark a legal battle. Gregg Paster - an attorney for Paterson candidates Alex Mendez, Ramon Joaquin, Eddie Olivares and Mosleh Uddin - said he was drafting an injunction to ask a judge to not certify the election until those 800 ballots are counted.
“Frankly every vote should be counted,” said Paster.
Passaic County has not yet posted results online, although multiple counties began to post preliminary, unofficial counts of ballots that had already been received through the mail. Several counties began to mail out ballots around April 24 and began to receive them before May 12.
Superior Court Judge Joseph Portelli, in an order given Tuesday, allowed the Passaic County Board of Elections to cease counting mail-in ballots received by May 12 and to resume the tally at a later date. Furlong, the county spokesman, said the count will continue next Tuesday.
The Passaic County Board of Elections said it has “considerable” space constraints due to social distancing guidelines, according to court records. The board received 17,688 ballots, Portelli’s order said, and 11,179 were received after May 8.
Election officials in other counties will accept ballots that were postmarked May 12 until May 14, so additional results will be posted online throughout the week.
That will likely not affect the results in Montclair, where New Jersey Education Association Vice President Sean Spiller already received 450 more votes against his challenger for mayor. The additional ballots that stream in will decide close races in Orange, where an at-large council candidate received one more vote than another.
There were some exceptions to the ban on in-person voting. Disabled voters, including blind residents who may need to be read a ballot, were allowed to vote at polling stations in county buildings or online through Democracy Live.
A decision about how the July 7 primaries will be conducted in New Jersey should likely come by Friday, Murphy said.
“I will be surprised if we don’t have a more comprehensive answer, especially as it relates to July 7, by the end of this week,” the governor said.
Voters in the May 12 election can see if the board of elections accepted or rejected their ballot in an online tool from the New Jersey Department of State.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.