'Voting Disaster' As Residents Faced Long Delays At The Polls In Morris Co.

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — Morris County recently replaced its 20-year-old voting machines. However, some of the machines deployed to local precincts for Election Day lengthened the verification process, causing significant delays in some Morris County towns.

Mayor Marcia Asdal of Chester Township noted that there were record-long lines to vote for districts two and three all day yesterday at town hall. She attributed the delays in part to the township receiving only one machine for each of its five voting districts, rather than the usual two.

"The voting disaster for districts two and three was foreseeable and could have been alleviated with better planning. I am not sure why we received half of our usual complement of voting machines, and I am not sure what the decision-making process was to leave us short, but we will be undergoing questioning and taking steps to make sure this never happens again," Asdal said.

Mendham Township voters also reported problems within district one, citing an early morning issue at the Brookside firehouse polling location.

According to Mayor Asdal, the Morris County Board of Elections installed new voting machines that require poll workers to go over the voting procedures with each person as they approach the machine. The new process makes it more difficult to vote and verify the accuracy of each vote, she said.

"In addition to this learning curve, the Board of Elections only delivered two machines to town hall instead of the usual four machines."

Patch has yet to receive a response from the Morris County Board of Elections regarding the machine shortages and whether other municipalities were also affected.

"I am disappointed that many of our District 2& 3 voters were discouraged when they saw the cars lining Parker Road as our usual complement of available municipal parking spaces was not equipped to deal with the extended time that each individual voter had to spend in the voting booth," Mayor Asdal said.