Election Day Disarray: Toxic Work Culture Played Into BurlCo Voting Issues, Report Says

BURLINGTON COUNTY, NJ — It wasn't just the voting machines, according to investigative findings of Burlington County's Election Day snafus.

The independent special counsel released a preliminary report on Wednesday of the issues that led to "unacceptable" wait times at polling locations throughout the county during November's Election Day.

In January, the county commissioners selected a third-party law firm to take over the independent review into the election issues, which included confusing with the new voting machines and wait times of up to 6 hours.

Although technology played a factor, law firm Connell Foley LLP suggested that some of the issues were more human, including a strain among election officials "appearing to stem from partisan tension, personality conflicts, or both," the report says.

Suggestions also included choosing more accessible polling locations, rebalancing the county's elections districts for more even population distribution, deploying more technical workers who can remedy issues, and better training of poll workers.

The report doesn't blame any singular entity but suggests several solutions to prevent repeats of last Election Day, when some votes were cast as late as 3 a.m. the next day.

County election officials have already put some of the solutions into action, according to the report. Connell Foley will release a final review on a later date.

With the old voting machines passing their useful life, the county purchased new machines in August 2023. They were rolled out during the 2024 primaries.

Days after the primary election, one municipal clerk emailed county election officials about challenges with the new voting machines, according to the report.

"I feel like many if not most of the issues could have been avoided with better communication and better training not just for the Clerks but poll workers as well," the clerk, who isn't identified by name, wrote to county election officials.

The county election offices later held an open house for municipal clerks to learn about the new equipment. But that may not have been enough, according to Connell Foley.

"Despite the warning, a culture of territorialism in the County election offices prevented the communication, collaboration, and coordination necessary to prepare for the November 2024 election," the report says. "Interviewees (for the investigation) uniformly reported or strongly implied that interoffice, and sometimes intraoffice, constructive criticism is largely met with defensiveness or even personal attacks."

Election officials no longer meet on a regular basis, and some will not work together at all, the report says.

Connell Foley says its final report will delve into how much this work environment affected the Election Day issues.

Three main entities administer elections in Burlington County, consistent with state law:

• Burlington County superintendent of elections: the governor-appointed official selects and maintains voting equipment, processes voter registration and maintains voter records. They manage an office of 15 employees.
• County Board of Elections: comprised of four members — two Democrats and two Republicans — who select and maintain polling locations, train poll workers, count vote-by-mail and provisional ballots, and conducts recounts.
• County Clerk's Office: oversees tabulating votes cast on Election Day and certifies election results.

Then there's coordination with municipal clerks, poll workers and local election officials to help election days run smoothly.

Connell Foley recommended that all lead election should work in the same room on Election Day. This wasn't the case in November, when the Democratic administrator was on medical leave and the Republican administrator was on-site but worked in a different room from other election officials.

This made it more difficult to handle the influx of calls about Election Day issues, the report says.

County Commissioner Director Dr. Felicia Hopson praised the preliminary report and said the county must work together to quickly implement the recommendations.

"Connell Foley has done exactly what we asked," Hopson said in a statement. "The independent special counsel's interim report outlines preliminary factual findings and assessments about what caused the unacceptable long lines and delays on Election Day, and it makes recommendations about what actions our County should take to prevent the problems from occurring again."

Read the preliminary report here.