How did bad vote-by-mail ballots get to voters and what's being done about it?

Carol Comegno, Cherry Hill Courier-Post
·3 min read

Voters in eight Burlington County municipalities are receiving corrected vote-by-mail ballots for the June primary because of errors made by the county clerk's office on the first ballot they were sent.

The initial vote-by-mail primary election ballot mislabeled Burlington County Regular Republican Organization candidates running for local government seats as Regular Democratic Party candidates while one municipality's mail-in ballots also listed the wrong state legislative district and its three legislative candidates.

County government spokesman David Levinksy confirmed the mistakes and said a total of 2,008 ballots were affected.

He identified the eight towns whose voters received incorrectly marked mail-in-ballots as: Hainesport, Lumberton, Mansfield, Medford Township, New Hanover, Riverside, Westampton and Wrightstown.

The Riverside ballot also incorrectly listed the township's state legislative district as the eighth district along with its three candidate; the township is in the Seventh Legislative District.

A Burlington County voter casts a ballot for last year's June primary election in one of many drop boxes around the county. (Photo: JOE LAMBERTI / COURIER-POST)
A Burlington County voter casts a ballot for last year's June primary election in one of many drop boxes around the county. (Photo: JOE LAMBERTI / COURIER-POST)

Could Republican voters cast two ballots in the primary election?

Speaking for county clerk Joanne Schwartz, Levinsky said the clerk's office sent out new ballots and added the words "corrected ballot" on the label with the voter's name.

He also assured the public that only one ballot per voter will be counted even if a voter from any of the eight towns returns the incorrect ballot, the corrected one or both.

Riverside voters first received a vote-by-mail ballot for the Republican primary on June 6 showing the wrong legislative district with its three candidates (listed first on the ballot.) The ballot also labels local Republican committee candidates J. Michael Higgins and Christy Veasy as Democrats.
Riverside voters first received a vote-by-mail ballot for the Republican primary on June 6 showing the wrong legislative district with its three candidates (listed first on the ballot.) The ballot also labels local Republican committee candidates J. Michael Higgins and Christy Veasy as Democrats.

The corrected labeling will make it easy for the county's board of elections staff to identify those ballots when returned by a voter, he explained.

"Errors were identified on some primary election ballots sent to registered voters on the permanent vote-by-mail list. None of the impacted towns have contested primary races. However, in the interest of being thorough, the county is mailing corrected ballots to these voters," Levinsky said this week.

More: Has downtown luxury apartment complex delivered on its promise for Burlington City?

The corrected ballots represent less than five percent of more than 48,000 vote-by-mail ballots and primary election notices sent to county voters.

Burlington County sent corrected vote-by-mail ballots like this one to Riverside voters for the Republican primary June 6. It now properly lists the township in the 7th Legislative District with the proper legislative candidates and also the proper party slogans for the two township committee candidates. Part of the phrase "sample ballot can not be voted" is missing because this is only a section of the entire ballot,

What does the Burlington County Republican Party say?

Burlington County Republican Party officials and candidates criticized Democrat county clerk Schwartz for the mistakes.

"This is a reoccurring issue at the Burlington County Clerk's Office. Last year they listed the wrong early voting location on the sample ballots for the general election," said Josh Zoppina, executive director of the Burlington County Republican Committee.

Deb Buzby-Cope, the GOP candidate opposing Schwartz for county clerk this year, also assured voters the ballot mistakes do not change their ability to vote, adding she also has confirmed there are systems in place that will only allow for one ballot to be counted.

"Elections are too important to be mismanaged, and she (Schwartz) has proven time and again not to be up for the job," her opponent explained.

Levinsky defended the clerk, saying she has handled not only a massive increase in vote-by-mail ballots since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020 but instituted early voting in the county.

Carol Comegno loves telling stories about South Jersey life, history and military veterans for the Courier Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. If you have a story to share, call her at 856-486-2473 or email  ccomegno@gannettnj.com. Support local journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Burlington County mail-in ballots had wrong political party name