Software glitch delays military, overseas ballot mailings

A software malfunction with the state Division of Elections’ Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS) has delayed the mailing of some military and overseas citizen ballots for the July 7 primary election.

A new system the state began using this year was not attaching ballots to the correct voter file, the New Jersey Globe has learned.

A fix for the glitch was planned over Memorial Day weekend, but it didn’t work.  Election officials and an outside vendor are working to triage the technology issue and are expected to take another run at it in the next day or so.

It’s not clear if the optional ballot bulking problems will be fixed at all.

The Division of Elections notified county clerks this morning that they should send out military and overseas ballots on an individual basis rather than depend on the state voter base.

State officials told the Globe that county clerks were advised Friday by the vendor, NoInk, that they should not depend on the state system and should be prepared to send out military ballots manually in advance of Saturday’s deadline.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced this month that New Jersey would move to a mostly all vote-by-mail primary in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

A new application for VBM ballots Murphy ordered for unaffiliated voters has still not been completed, officials told the Globe.  That should come this week.  After that, the mailing of ballots for the primary may commence.

Local election officials also reported problems with sending out bilingual ballots from the SRVS.

New Jersey is currently on its third vendor in seven years.

The Division of Elections awarded a $17 million contract in 2013 to maintain the SVRS to Everyone Counts, a company based in LaJolla, California.   That company was subsequently acquired by the Cleveland-based Votem Corp.

Pete Martin, the CEO of Votem, told the Globe that his company sold the New Jersey contract to NoInk.

The new DVRS database was initially scheduled to change over to a new system in 2019 but delays moved changes to 2020.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE) requires states to send absentee ballots at least 45 days before a federal election.  That would have set May 23 as the mailing date.