The revelation that some ballots were accidentally counted twice during the vote-counting process, potentially changing the outcome, has thrown the outcome of a New Jersey school board race into confusion! Currently, two candidates are involved in this contentious electoral confusion.
Votes transferred by flash drive on November 8th resulted in a reporting error, according to ES&S, the supplier of Monmouth’s election technology. This incident serves as a crucial reminder of the value of protecting our voting system against any potential flaws or malfunctions as they work to develop and maintain integrity in election processes moving forward.
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The Epoch Times contacted ES&S for further information after discovering a “isolated occurrence” brought on by human mistake during an examination of their system. An unanticipated problem in the Garden State serves as a reminder of how susceptible even highly developed voting infrastructure may be.
“A technician inadvertently loaded votes twice in error,” ES&S spokesperson Katina Granger told CNN on Thursday. “Typically our software blocks this from happening. Unfortunately, a human error in a July software re-installment missed the step that would have flagged the mistake.”
After the re-installing of the software, she added that “a human procedural error during reinstallation excluded a step, which optimizes the system database and ensures USB flash media cannot be read twice during the results loading process” and “because the database was not optimized, the user was not notified when the USB flash media were loaded twice into the results reporting module.”
Outcome
Granger went on to say that the mistake happened when a USB flash drive uploaded the vote results “twice” to the “results reporting module.”
In a contentious battle for the school board, Steve Clayton was initially proclaimed the winner by 20 votes, although he might have actually lost. According to an analysis by The Globe, Jeffrey Weinstein may have won this close election by just one vote, according to a statement from the Ocean Township School District released on Tuesday.
A mere 20 votes separate Clayton, who assumed office earlier this month after the midterm elections, from victory! Clayton voiced his happiness and confidence to the local media, hoping to win the recount by one vote when a court certified it.
“I’m a board member until I’m not a board member. My main concern is the integrity of the election and that whoever ends up taking the seat, the people have confidence in the outcome,” Clayton told the Ashbury Park Press.
Speaking to CNN on Thursday, Clayton stated that he was “shocked” to learn of the blunder earlier this week after receiving a call from the Monmouth County Clerk’s office and that he has since sought legal counsel. He declared, “I’m not giving up yet. We are looking at our possibilities.
After the votes had been tallied, Weinstein and Clayton both issued statements urging caution. Later on, local officials informed them of an error in their count – yet instead of acting hastily, they wisely decided to let it pass through its due process.
“I don’t think I was thinking something like this might occur,” he told CNN. “Every election has its emotional ups and downs, but I didn’t think this would be part of it.”
Recertify?
After a startling hiccup was discovered in their software on Thursday, Monmouth County officials asked the state of New Jersey to double-check its voting equipment and updates. In order to make sure that this unexpected problem doesn’t effect upcoming elections, the recertification process is already ongoing.
“Monmouth County Election Offices also ask the state to create a new state mandated test and checklist to perform before elections to ensure the election software works properly,” Monmouth election officials told the Globe.
“Monmouth County followed the current state protocol to test the system prior to the 2022 General Election, but the only current tests provided by the state would not catch the step missed and acknowledged by ES&S which allowed votes to be counted twice.”
Further stating that the scenario is “absolutely unacceptable,” Democrat state senator Vin Gopal stated he is pushing for a thorough probe into the affair.
“Reversing the outcome of a race over two months after the election is completely unacceptable and creates an opening for questions about the integrity of elections in Monmouth County, and the state,” Gopal said in a statement to local media.
“Monmouth County, and the state, owes voters complete transparency on how these errors occurred and what steps are being taken to ensure they never repeat. A full investigation of all processes of the County Clerk and Board of Elections, in addition to anything relating to the elections process, needs to happen immediately.”
