Voting machines in Mercer, New Jersey are experiencing a “programming glitch” that is causing issues with the Dominion machines ability to process votes. Voters are not being turned away, but are being asked to fill out ballots manually and place them in the slot for manual counting later.
From the New Jersey Globe:
Voting machines throughout Mercer County are facing technical difficulties this morning, but no voters are being turned away and machine votes are still being cast.
The issue involves a programming glitch with optical scanners, which count votes after ballots are filled out.
Programmers from the voting machine manufacturer, Dominion, are in site trying to work through the problem, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.
“There is a slot on the top of the scanner and voters can vote and are voting manually,” said Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello. “We are asking poll workers to use the official ballots because they can still vote them manually, and place them in the slot in the scanning machines and we will count them manually.”
While issues with optical scanners won’t prevent voting — ballots are still being printed properly – it could delay the counting of votes tonight. That might impact the speed by which election return in Hamilton, Lawrence, East Windsor, Hightstown and Robbinsville – all towns in New Jersey’s 3rd congressional district potentially impedes counts in the closely watched House race between Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) and Republican Bob Healey.
In 2020 Mercer was a +40 Biden county. In the 2021 Governor’s race, Democrats lost 9 points over their 2020 performance in the county of 387,000 people. The turnout in 2021 was of course significantly less.
