Two uncounted advance ballots in Atlantic County must be added to the official count and two more voters will be given a chance to correct deficiencies on their ballots, Superior Court Judge Stanley Bergman Jr. ordered today.
The Atlantic County Board of Elections deadlocked 2-2 on those four ballots — all based on signature-matching issues — forcing Bergman to essentially serve as the tiebreaker.
“This is a bit of a quirk because the certification period for county clerks has expired,” Deputy Attorney General Steven Gleason told the judge.
Bergman said his own review of the two ballots convinced him the votes should be counted; the other two, including one where the voter was helped, will get a chance to heal. He ordered letters to be sent to the two voters within 24 hours and gave them seven days to correct the lack of signatures.
“I didn’t count the votes because it’s not an actual signature,” Bergman said. “I believe that there is no similarity. I think it’s actually, and I believe it’s actually signed by another person. My only concern is that it could have been some assistant and there could have been some confusion about it. But in the documents before me there is no evidence that this person was really an assistant.”
According to Gleason, there is no race in the district that would be affected by additional votes.
