The Atlantic County Board of Elections opened 1,803 vote-by-mail ballots more than a month ago, and now a judge is being asked if they can be counted.
There are no allegations of nefarious conduct, but it’s possible that close races might not be determined until after a court hearing on Friday.
The ballots represent 42% of all VBMs cast in advance of today, with a partisan breakdown of roughly 1,100 Democrats and 700 Republicans, the New Jersey Globe has determined.
Deputy Attorney General Kim Dinenberg is asking Atlantic County Assignment Judge Michael Blee to break a tie after two Democratic commissioners voted to count the mail-in ballots and two Republicans on the Board of Elections voted to disqualify them.
According to Dinenberg, county election officials became aware that ballots had been opened early on May 6. State law does not allow ballots to be stripped and prepared for counting until five days before the election.
She did not say why the Board of Elections didn’t notify Blee four weeks ago. Dinenberg, who initially told Blee she didn’t see the need to notify the attorneys for the two political parties – Blee disagreed, and the court added the two lawyers – also didn’t say why the attorney general’s office didn’t ask for all candidates on the ballot to receive notification.
Dinenberg initially told Blee that he had ten days to decide, but then, after speaking with her supervisor, pushed Blee to make an immediate decision.
But Blee rejected that outright, saying he wasn’t going to be rushed into determining the fate of more than 1,800 ballots.
Ken Warren, an attorney representing the Atlantic County Republicans, said there were additional issues of concern.
“It’s my understanding that there are there were and are ballots that were misplaced and still being found, so there’s alternative issues going on with this,” Warren said. “Our position is we obviously want to make sure that we protect the integrity of the process.”