“The reason for the confusion and suspicion was because the media only reported a portion of the totals. “We do this part and they do that part,” she said. Those late numbers from the mail-in ballots were sent to her office for posting from the Board of Elections. Taranto said that on Tuesday her office did what it was responsible for: ensuring the tabulation of the ballots cast on machines in polling places throughout the county. Republican challenger in the Bergen County Clerk election Bridget Anne Kelly mingles with supporters, while waiting for election results at the Bergen County Republican Organization headquarters in Hackensack on election night, November 2, 2021. Separate offices for machine votes and mail-in votes His deputy, Steve Chong, was out of the country and unavailable for comment this week. The official normally in charge of elections, Bergen County Clerk John Hogan, was up for reelection and recused from the process. Bergen County officials did nothing to explain where they came from, or why they arrived so late.
National pundits were unsure how to react to the influx of ballots. "Tell me you believe in voted (sic) fraud w/o telling me?" reads text in the image.Īnd the confusion wasn't just among ordinary folks on social media. NJ governor's race: Ciattarelli hasn't conceded, and Murphy says not doing so is 'dangerous' In the other screenshot, purportedly taken seven hours later, Phil Murphy is up by more than 40,000 votes. In one screenshot, Jack Ciattarelli is shown as having 52% of the vote in Bergen County, with 100% of precincts reporting.
Both depict a New York Times county-level breakdown of New Jersey election results. 3 in a group called "Audit NJ #AuditNJ" shows two screenshots side by side. The attention was nationwide, driven by the closely watched gubernatorial race, one of two in the country.Ī Facebook post published Nov. In an atmosphere of suspicion over elections, conspiracy theories were rampant on social media after the flood of late votes. It was nearly midnight when a new batch of more than 41,000 mail-in ballots was posted. The numbers posted and updated on the official website throughout the night Tuesday were only from voting machines, said Sabrina Taranto, the elections division supervisor in the clerk’s office. Even then, the numbers on the Bergen County clerk’s website still showed them behind in the tally.
So the turnaround was stunning when, shortly before midnight, a group of candidates emerged from the elevator with Commissioner Chairman Steven Tanelli leading the way, smiling brightly and shaking hands.ĭeclaring themselves winners, they took to the stage, jubilant. In every race, including clerk, sheriff and two Board of Commissioner seats, votes still widely favored Republicans. As the crowd thinned, more numbers came through, and they weren’t good. Candidates from local races started to call it a night and headed for the doors. Then he scurried back to the elevator to wait out the nail-biter with the candidates in a suite upstairs.