A programming glitch on in-person early voting machines throughout Hudson County has left Spanish-language ballots with two columns labeled Column A and no Column B, potentially confusing voters, some of whom Democratic campaigns have told to support their candidates in Column B.
The problem affects voting machines at every early voting location in Hudson County, but only when voters select Spanish as their preferred language. English-language ballots are not affected.
In Hudson County this year, Republicans won the drawing for Column A, while Democrats were assigned Column B. Independent candidates appear on columns C, D, E and F.
But on Spanish-language ballots, both of the first two columns are labeled Column A, leaving no column labeled Column B. Republican candidates appear in the first of the two Column A designations.
That creates a particular problem for Democrats, whose campaign literature and voter communications have instructed supporters to vote for candidates in Column B, a column that does not appear on the Spanish-language voting machine display.
The error does not appear on provisional ballots or sample ballots, both of which correctly identify the Republican and Democratic columns.
Correcting the problem will require reprogramming the voting machines, a potentially complicated undertaking with early voting already underway.
Hudson County Clerk Junior Maldonado did not immediately respond to a telephone call seeking comment, and no one answered the telephone in his office’s election division.
An employee of the Hudson County Board of Elections said the County Clerk’s office was closed for the weekend, even though early voting is taking place on Saturday and Sunday.
“They are not here today or tomorrow,” the employee said. “They’re the ones who do the proofreading of the ballots.
The office being closed — county clerks are supposed to be open while the polls are open — also prevents voters from requesting messenger or replacement ballots today and tomorrow.
The programming error raises questions about how the incorrect column designations escaped detection before the county deployed voting machines to early voting locations.
It also creates the potential for confusion among Spanish-speaking voters who rely on party column designations to identify their preferred candidates.
No one indicated when the machines would be reprogrammed or whether election officials would take interim steps to alert Spanish-language voters to the error.
In Essex County, a bomb threat temporarily closed an early voting location in West Orange around 11:30 AM. The Sheriff’s Department responded immediately, swept the area with bomb-sniffing dogs, and reopened the polling place before noon.