CNN
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A voting machine error that precipitated some votes to be double-counted has flipped the end result of a non-partisan native faculty board race in New Jersey.
The error throughout the November election in Monmouth County occurred when votes had been uploaded from a USB flash drive, in keeping with an announcement from Election Techniques and Software program, the county’s election system vendor.
It altered the outcomes of a college board race in Ocean Township, a neighborhood of about 28,000, in keeping with the 2020 Census.
“A technician inadvertently loaded votes twice in error,” mentioned ES&S spokesperson Katina Granger. “Usually our software program blocks this from taking place. Sadly, a human error in a July software program reinstallment missed the step that might have flagged the error.”
The anomaly is restricted to Monmouth County, Granger mentioned, including that ES&S reviewed the info on the county’s request and located the issue.
The error throughout the software program reinstallation prevented the system from notifying officers that information had been uploaded twice on the time the error occurred. A later audit of the election database revealed that the votes had been loaded twice, ES&S mentioned. A single race was impacted, the corporate mentioned.
The corporate mentioned it could reinstall the election administration software program to make sure the system is optimized to detect and block the duplication of outcomes, and would “work with Monmouth County to make sure all needed steps are taken to make sure election accuracy.”
“The integrity of elections are finally protected by a sequence of checks and balances, and we’re grateful for an audit that exposed this human error,” Granger mentioned.
The error was first reported by the New Jersey Globe, which reported that the New Jersey legal professional common’s workplace has instructed Monmouth County to recavass and recertify the outcomes of November’s election.
CNN has reached out to Monmouth County and the county’s board of elections for particulars on what led to the info overview request, and the New Jersey legal professional common’s workplace for particulars concerning the county’s subsequent steps.
The election was non-partisan, with the highest three finishers out of six candidates on the poll successful seats. Steve Clayton completed third in November, with 3,523 votes; Jeffrey Weinstein completed fourth with 3,503 votes.
Nonetheless, after the error was found, Weinstein leapfrogged Clayton and is now forward by one vote, in keeping with the New Jersey Globe.
Clayton, beforehand a college board member from 2015 to 2018, mentioned he acquired a name Tuesday informing him of the error, and mentioned he was “shocked.” He mentioned he has a lawyer and should ask for a recount.
“I’m not giving up but,” he mentioned. “We’re exploring our choices.”
Irene Gilman, president of the Ocean Township Board of Schooling, informed CNN in an announcement Wednesday that the district was notified of the the “tabulation error” on Tuesday.
Clayton, who campaigned final yr on his native ties and guarantees of a collaborative method, made a sequence of social media posts after the November election urging endurance as votes had been counted, earlier than declaring victory after the rely’s completion on November 17.
Weinstein, who was an incumbent, had likewise urged warning, and in January congratulated the 2 different incumbents who gained re-election in a Fb publish.
He mentioned he was stunned to obtain an identical name Tuesday from the county clerk of elections informing him of the error, and is now “simply letting it undergo its course of.”
“I don’t assume I used to be considering one thing like this may happen,” he mentioned. “Each election has its emotional ups and downs, however I didn’t assume this might be a part of it.”
