Election Day 2021: 56 districts in Essex County did not count votes last night. Here’s why.
Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin has a lot of work ahead of him after 56 districts were not counted Tuesday night in the county.
“It’s a mix but they are mostly in Newark, in East Orange, Irvington, Maplewood, Montclair, the majority of those 56 districts,” says Durkin.
Durkin says you can call it poll worker error. There will be an investigation as to why it happened. He asks New Jersey residents not to jump to conclusions as to why the 56 voting machines were shut down last night without being counted first.
“Those machines are at the polling places right now,” says Durkin. “Those machines have to be brought back to the warehouse and the judge will issue an order for us to open those machines, retrieve the results and post those results.”
But it doesn’t look like that will happen today.
“No,” says Durkin. “We need to compile a list of the results that are missing then need to schedule a hearing in front of a judge and then the judge issued the order and then were able to go and retrieve those results.”
Durkin says issues like this happen in every election in every county. The fact that it’s 56 voting machines in such a close race has obviously magnified this situation.
Meanwhile, five districts in Paterson are in a similar situation with their voting machines, according to Mayor Andre Seigh.
https://newjersey.news12.com/election-day-2021-56-districts-in-essex-county-did-not-count-votes-last-night-here-s-why