The Atlantic County Board of Elections is deadlocked over whether to count three cure letters deposited in a secure ballot drop box, leaving Superior Court Judge Susan Sheppard to decide the tie-breaker.
Deputy Attorney General Andrew Hedin told Sheppard that the statute allows voters to return cure letters to the Board of Elections in person, or by mail, fax, or email – but not to a drop box owned and operated by election officials to accept ballots.
“The statute is silent,” Hedin said.
Two Democratic commissioners voted to accept the cure letters, but the two Republicans said no.
After a break in a hearing that began this morning, Hedin said the two parties could not reach a resolution and the board “is still in deadlock.”
Sheppard said she needs more information about the issue – nothing was submitted in writing – before she makes the call.
“It looks like the voters went beyond in a good faith attempt to make sure that they were able to vote, and I don’t want in any way to disenfranchise them without having some sort of certification on the record and some sort of factual analysis, so I can make some findings of fact and conclusions of law,” she said. “As it stands right now, I’m unable to do that.”
Hedin said the Board of Elections still has “a fair amount of time within early voting.”
The judge wants Hedin to notify the three voters that their ballots may not be counted and to advise them that she will hold another hearing on Wednesday.
“Let’s not miss the point that I have three voters (whose) votes may not be counted,” Sheppard said. “It’s somewhat frustrating that they get a cure, an opportunity to cure, and they cure it, and now it’s again being questioned, and I think they have a right to know that.”
Creed Pogue, a Democrat and the chairman of the Atlantic County Board of Elections, said that the cure is not being questioned.
“The cures aren’t being considered because they were put in a drop box. I think that’s the issue,” Pogue stated. “And then half the board voted to accept them and have the board voted not to, but based on that method of delivery. Otherwise, it’d be automatically accepted, and we would proceed forward from there, assuming they’re filled out.”