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Elections Clerk: Machine Error Mailed Some Bergen County Voters Ballot With Wrong Candidates

New Jersey has a vote-by-mail election -- what could possibly go wrong?

Official mail-in ballot

Official mail-in ballot

Photo Credit: Cecilia Levine

The same day that a North Jersey mail carrier was charged with dumping 1,800 pieces of mail including elections ballots, the Bergen County Elections Clerk issued a letter saying some residents had been mailed ballots with the wrong candidates.

A programming error by an outside vendor sent some Teaneck voters ballots with the wrong candidates for the House of Representatives for the upcoming general election, according to a letter issued to residents Wednesday.

"The Board of Elections has been made aware and already has procedures in place for replacing the old ballot with the correct ballot for the impacted voters who may have already cast their vote.

"We fully understand the impact of this error and are doing all we can to not only fix this, but also make sure it never happens again."

The voters that were impacted were identified, and the process of reprinting all of the supplies needed to resend the ballots was under way, the letter says. The new set with the correct ballot was expected to be mailed by the end of the week, the letter said.

The ballot will be marked "CORRECT BALLOT" on both the outer and return envelopes. The ballots themselves have also been re-printed to say "correct."

While there will still be some in-person polling stations, this year's election will be conducted mostly with mail-in ballots across New Jersey, thanks to an executive order signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in August.

Registered voters automatically receive mail-in ballots, which can be returned by mail with a postmark on or before Nov. 3. They will be counted as a valid ballot by the County Clerk if received by 8 p.m. Nov. 10.

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