Good afternoon.
The Board of Elections wanted to update you and your organizations on the upcoming changes to elections within Middlesex County as a result of P.L.2021, c.40 which establishes In-Person Early Voting in New Jersey.
This new option enables all registered voters to cast their ballot in person, using a voting machine, during a nine-day period prior to Election Day. Voters can now choose to vote, in person, when it’s most convenient for their schedule. No matter where a voter lives in the county, they can vote their specific ballot at any of our county’s designated in-person early voting locations (attached) which have been inspected and vetted by Board of Elections staff in coordination with your municipal clerks and approved by our Board of Election Commissioners.
In-person early voting locations will be open Saturday, October 23 through Sunday, October 31. • Hours will be Monday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. and Sunday, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. No appointment is necessary.
Poll Workers:
First, to address questions about Election Day recruitment, as we did during the 2021 Primary Election, we are requesting from each chair, or chairman through their poll worker coordinator, and/or municipal clerk 5 poll workers per party per polling place (see Early Voting sites attached). Therefore, each polling location will have 10 poll workers in total: 5 Democrats / 5 Republicans. Please provide those names as you normally would through our poll worker coordinators at the Board of Elections.
To implement Early Voting, all County Boards of Elections in New Jersey are required to move towards electronic poll books (EPBs) for Early Voting and Election Day. This is being done so that voter histories with regards to mail-in ballots and early voting can be updated in real-time and to prevent attempts at election fraud as well reduce check-in and verification waiting time for voters, increases the accuracy of ballots issued and improves the Election Day experience for all. To successfully institute EPBs and a new provisional ballot process, the Board is mandating all poll workers receive training to work the 2021 General Election (see poll worker letter attached).
Assigned poll workers can begin training September 20th and training will run through the middle of October and will end before Early Voting begins. Our training will be conducted in small hands-on classes to account for social distancing, limiting large gatherings, and provide a better environment for learning the electronic poll book and new provisional ballot process. Classes will be Mon-Sat with up to 21 sessions available per day. Our classes will be primarily held at the Heldrich Hotel & Conference Center in New Brunswick with a smaller offering of classes at the Board of Elections Main Office in East Brunswick.
To help poll workers with scheduling, we are using a new application that will allow poll workers to schedule the location, date, and time of their poll worker training. To locate this application, poll workers should go to our poll worker page on our website at click on the scheduling link: http://www.middlesexcountynj.gov/Government/Departments/CS/Boardofelections/Pages/pollworkers.aspx
For poll workers unable to use the application via their mobile devices, personal devices, laptops/PCs or at their public library, they should call the Board of Elections at (732) 745-3471 for assistance in scheduling their class. The benefit for chairs is that the Board can share reports from this application of which poll workers have received their training and which poll workers have yet to schedule their training.
As you are aware, for the June 2021 Primary, the Legislature and Governor passed emergency legislation to address poll worker shortages across the state by providing a one-time $200 bonus on top of their regular poll worker pay. That legislation was only for the 2021 June Primary Election; therefore, the pay structure for the November General Election will be as follows:
Early Voting (Oct. 23-31): poll workers will receive $14.29 / per hour plus a one-time $30 poll worker training bonus that will be received when poll workers work their scheduled shifts. There will be (2) Supervising Poll Workers for the early voting period at each designated site. Supervising Poll Workers will receive $21.44 / per hour plus a one-time $30 poll worker training bonus to be given when poll workers work their scheduled shifts.
Election Day (Nov 2): $200 for the full day plus a one-time $30 poll worker training bonus that will be received when poll workers work their scheduled shifts.
To help to assist in our efforts to staff these locations, chairmen or chairmen through your poll worker coordinators and/or municipal clerks can submit poll workers for Early Voting locations to a Board of Elections staff person designated for Early Voting Poll Worker Recruitment: Gwynne Kesselman @ Gwynne.kesselman@co.middlesex.nj.us or call at (732) 745-3471.
Provisional Ballots:
Please be aware that the provisional ballot process will be changing for the November 2021 General Election and future elections going forward. Previously, a voter completed a paper certificate envelope with their information and signature and completed a paper provisional ballot to be inserted into the certificate envelope and then placed into a provisional ballot bag to be sealed and transported to the Board of Elections to be reviewed and ,if eligible, to be counted after mail-in ballots have been processed.
The important change that poll workers will need to be trained for the upcoming election, is that voters will still receive a paper certificate envelope to complete but will no longer complete a paper provisional ballot, but will receive a coded ballot card to use on the voting machines. After a voter makes their selections, the ballot card coded provisional will be returned to the voter who will insert the card into the certificate envelope and then placed into the provisional ballot bag to be sealed and transported to the Board of Elections to be reviewed and ,if eligible, to be counted after mail-in ballots have been processed.
Security & Chain of Custody:
Election integrity depends on simple principles of transparency. To be certain of the results, chairs want to know that each step of the process was conducted according to plan, transparently, with bipartisan participation or opportunity for observation throughout.
To establish the chain of custody that proves election materials remain secure even when beyond direct oversight of election workers, the Board working with our local municipal clerks will rely on the interlocking security provided by security seals and when possible, security cameras. Best practice is to use numbered security seals, recorded by our warehouse staff and board members and checked routinely and at each break of seal. Items under seal will include at a minimum prepared voting machines, voted ballots in storage and in transit and completed provisional envelopes. The Board will keep electronic poll books, provisional ballots, and other election items under seal and contained within a security cage at Early Voting sites for which the Board of Elections will maintain the keys.
Results:
Please note that at the end of every day during voting, Board staff will transport the sealed containers with the paper card ballots from the Early Voting sites to the Board of Elections. There will be no results tape available for challengers or candidates at the end of each day during Early Voting or the conclusion of Early Voting. Chairs can receive daily reports of which voters voted during Early Voting, similar to what you might receive for Mail-In Ballots before Election Day from the County Clerk website. At the conclusion of Early Voting the USB sticks containing the electronic results of Early Voting from each voting machine will be transported by a Dem/Rep to the Board of Elections on October 31st and will be tallied after 8:00 pm on Tuesday, November 2nd (Election Day). The results will be available on the County Clerk results website post 8:00 pm.
Regards,
Thomas Lynch
Administrator
Middlesex County Board of Elections
11 Kennedy Boulevard
East Brunswick, NJ 08816