Heavy Electronic Voting Response in Monmouth County

Electronic voting is causing headaches at the Monmouth County Board of Elections as employees file e-mail requests for ballots.

“I can’t even begin to estimate how many have come in. People are submitting the e-mail several times,” said Laura Kirkpatrick, a spokesperson for Monmouth County.

After Hurricane Sandy displaced thousands of New Jersey residents, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno signed an order allowing voters to submit a mail-in ballot application by e-mail or fax.

Once the request is received, Board of Elections workers have to verify that the individual is a qualified voter. Then, the registered voter receives a waiver of secrecy form along with the ballot to fill out and e-mail or fax back.

In an age of instantaneous communication, some voters are sending e-mail requests to election boards multiple times, Kirkpatrick said. She advised residents who submitted an e-mail request for a mail-in ballot to be patient and avoid sending additional e-mails, as each has to be processed by an elections worker as a separate request.

If residents are concerned that their request for electronic voting has not been received, she advised voters to visit their polling station or a polling station nearby.

“They can step into any polling place in the state of New Jersey and vote provisionally and it will get to Monmouth,” Kirkpatrick said.

Voters casting a provisional ballot will be able to vote for presidential and state-wide elections, though not for their local municipal elections.

The deadline to submit a mail-in ballot application is Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. Once an application is process, the voter has until Friday, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. to submit their ballot and waiver of secrecy.