Burlington County launches investigation into ‘crazy’ voting lines during presidential election
Some waited as long as five hours to cast their votes. Were new voting machines to blame?
For John Lloyd, the simple act of voting for president on Election Day in November became an ordeal.
The Moorestown High School English teacher stood in what seemed like an endless line from 6:30 to 10 p.m. to cast his ballot at Medford United Methodist Church.
“It was crazy,” said Lloyd, 50. “You haven’t eaten since lunch, you’re cold, you’re standing, and you’re breathing in all those wildfires that were still burning. It was like nothing I’d ever seen.” Lloyd’s experience was shared throughout Burlington County, geographically New Jersey’s largest, on a Nov. 5 election that didn’t end until after 1 a.m. the next day.
To understand what caused what it deemed the “unacceptable” lines and voting times, the Burlington County Board of Commissioners appointed an independent special counsel on Wednesday to review the 2024 general election and provide recommendations for improvements.
“Burlington County residents deserve accountability and appropriate action to ensure the 2024 election failures are not repeated,” said County Commissioner Director Felicia Hopson in a statement.
The county hired Connell Foley LLP, a law firm in Roseland, Essex County, to conduct the investigation. Representatives of the firm did not return calls for comment.
The firm’s review will look at all aspects of the 2024 election, including the deployment of new voting machines that many believe may have contributed to the excessively long waits. The firm is also expected to study effects of the locations and makeup of voting districts, as well as poll worker training and management, county spokesperson David Levinsky said.
In November, the county’s commissioners had requested the superintendent of elections and the elections board delve into what caused the difficult day. But, Levinsky added, while both offices have gathered information, “neither has the expertise to complete the review process.”
Representatives of the election offices did not offer comments on the voting problems.
In a joint statement, chairs of both the Burlington County Democratic and Republican committees called for “a review of what happened and why,” said Democratic chairman Matt Riggins in a brief interview.
Neither party complained that the voting troubles had disadvantaged one more than the other, county officials said. ”It was a bipartisan annoyance,” said Riverton Mayor Jim Quinn, a Democrat, who clocked the last vote cast in his area at 1:10 a.m. on Nov. 6.
Tyrus Ballard, president of the Southern Burlington County NAACP, concurred: “Everyone suffered,” he said.
Ballard fielded numerous complaints from voters, some saying they had waited five hours in line. “I had no clue it was going to be this bad,” he said. Ballard and other NAACP members began showing up at several lines with chairs, water, and other refreshments, he said. “Unfortunately,” he added, “we lost voters. Around 100 people left the line at the polling site at an EMS station in Mount Laurel Township. I’m sure others left before voting, too.”
Ballard said he believed that there may not have been enough poll workers to handle the large turnout that typically accompanies a presidential election. Also, Ballard cited voter unfamiliarity with the more than 500 new voting machines. County officials are awaiting the Connell Foley report before commenting further. It’s not clear when it will be released.
Regarding the machines, Quinn said voters used touch screens to make their choices, which produced a printout that had to be walked over to a tabulator that scanned the results.
“It was only the second time voters had any experience with this machine,” he said, which was first used in the June primary, which draws fewer voters.
The county had conducted “substantial outreach” about the new voting system, sending out how-to videos on social media and displaying a new machine at the Moorestown Mall, among other efforts, Levinsky said.
The switchover was necessary because the old machines that had been in use for 25 years. They were no longer being made and could not be repaired, Levinsky added.
Though the new machines were troublesome, poll workers tried to make the experience easier, according to Tina Zappile, 48, of Medford, who was in line two hours while her husband waited for more than three.
“I felt bad for the poll workers who had to deal with the lines,” said Zappile, a political scientist at Stockton University in Atlantic County. “But they were excellent, talking to us, keeping our spirits up, never being negative.”