Atlantic County hasn’t certified election results

Atlantic County has still not certified the results of the November 5 general election. It is the only county in the state to miss the November 20 statutory deadline, and the official results will remain unknown until at least Monday.

The Board of Elections was still counting ballots at 5 PM on November 26.

“Over the years, this supposed “best-run county” has become a laughingstock when it comes to our elections: not certifying elections on time, prematurely opening up ballots, sending ballots to the wrong people, not having provisional ballots available, etc.,” said Michael Suleiman, the Democratic county chairman.

However, both parties appear to have contributed to the delays. While the Republican Superintendent of Elections didn’t finish reviewing provisional ballots until November 18, the Democratic election supervisor took a week’s vacation even though the counting had not been completed.

It took Atlantic more than a week to count roughly 4,200 provisional ballots; some counties with significantly more ballots to count did so in far less time.   A legally mandated post-election audit was also more than a week late and has still not been publicly released.

There are no exceptionally close races, although political observers are waiting to see if Donald Trump or Kamala Harris carried Atlantic County.  That, too, will be public next week, along with detailed municipal results.

“As a lifelong Atlantic County resident, I’m sick of accepting mediocrity as an accomplishment,” said Suleiman.

Atlantic County GOP Chairman Don Purdy, a commissioner of the Board of Elections, noted that the Democratic election supervisor, Bill Sacchinelli, unexpectedly retired just before the general election.

“In an era, when election officials are under fire and threat, with threats in our very own county, the Democrats is attacking election officials and all those who worked so hard on the presidential election, where Atlantic County had less lines than most counties to to thoughtful, planning, and collaboration between the three departments,” Purdy said.