New Voting Machines, Paper Ballot Trails In Mercer This Year To Avoid Snafu

MERCER COUNTY, NJ – If you’re yet to go out and cast your ballot in the 2023 elections in Mercer County, you’ll be surprised to find some changes.

In a bid to avoid voting machines “glitches” like last year, Mercer County officials are using new voting machines with verifiable paper trail in every voting district.

These voting machines were purchased from Dominion Voting Systems, and are similar to those already used by Mercer County during early voting. The new machines allow voters to use a touch screen device to print out ballot selections which they will then scan into the voting machine.

Last year, widespread issues with poll machine scanners was reported in Mercer County prompting voters to resort to manual balloting on Election Day.

The issue with the voting machines became a criminal investigation.

County officials held several public hearings over the past year, and received feedback from voters stating that they did not like using markers to vote and they did not think that the paper ballots were well-secured at the polling locations among their complaints.

County officials then took the following steps to avoid future election problems:

• The County purchased new voting machines to avoid the transport of paper ballots to polling locations. While paper ballots will still be transported back to the Board of Elections at the end of an election as a back-up, they will not to be pre-printed and transported to the polls by poll-workers. This will be less overwhelming to poll workers and more secure overall.
• The County learned that the ballots used in testing were pre-marked ballots created and generated by Dominion’s own program, instead of testing the actual ballots being used by voters on election day. That will no longer happen. Testing was done on the actual ballots voters will use on Election Day and they will make sure they scan properly into the voting machines.
• Dominion has assured the County that Mercer will have proper personnel and procedures in place to avoid any future problems. Dominion will also provide on-site assistance on Election Day.
• The County Board of Elections trained poll workers to ensure they are well-prepared to use the new voting machines and are familiar with how to secure ballots in their custody. The Board of Elections also added enhanced training classes, refresher classes, and online quizzes for poll workers to ensure that they are well prepared for any difficulty that might arise.

The new machines allow voters to enlarge the voting screen font by touch, or to pull up the ballot in English or Spanish. Additional languages can be added with population changes. Voters who prefer to hand-mark their ballots can print a blank paper ballot and use a black pen or marker, officials said.

The new machines also offer privacy sides and privacy curtains to protect voter confidentiality.

The new machines are also equipped with lockable steel doors on both sides of each unit, which offer additional security when not in use.

The County has also purchased new asset-tracking software and made other internal changes to prepare for the use of new voting machines and for the future.