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New voting machines for 2022 in Hunterdon County

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Hunterdon County voters will be using new Elections Systems and Software (ESS) ballot verification voting machines during the 2022 elections, following the County Board of Commissioners approval of the purchase of 136 new machines, at the Dec. 7 board meeting.
“After the funding was adopted at the last meeting, the county is now able to purchase a new fleet of ESS voting machines to replace the Dominion machines that are at the end of their useful life,” Board of Commissioners Deputy Director John E. Lanza, the board’s liaison with the County Clerk’s Office and Board of Elections, stated.
“The timing now allows for the equipment to be ready, and the poll workers trained for the primary election next June,” he said, adding, “The test period for these new machines was their use in the early voting that took place in the county during the final days in October, in the run up to the Nov. 2 election.”

County Clerk Mary Melfi said the new machines “will streamline the reporting process in 2022.”
Beth Thompson, the Hunterdon County Board of Elections administrator, said voters who tried the new equipment during early voting were “pleased with its ease of use, the ability to see their ballot before it was cast, thereby restoring their confidence in the process by knowing there was a voter-verified paper trail for every ballot cast.”
Lanza also told the Commissioners, “The County’s Board of Elections, comprised of two Democratic and two Republican members, appointed by the Governor, have also unanimously endorsed the purchase of the ESS machines.”


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