Hardyston voter reports ballot glitch; officials say machine worked properly

Controversy arose in Hardyston last week when a Crystal Springs woman reported that a voting machine switched her Election Day ballot from Republican votes to Democrat votes.

“I went to vote [around 1 p.m.] on Election Day at St. Jude the Apostle Church in Hardyston,” Doreen Cappiello said. “I voted Republican down the line but when it was time to print my ballot everything was Democrat. I went back three times and each time the last page was all Democrat.”

After calling over poll workers, she tried for a fourth time. This time, she said, her ballot was correct when it came time to print it out but instead of printing her ballot and completing the voting process, the machine froze.

“A poll worker, who was not looking at the machine’s screen while I voted, made a phone call and they were told to reboot the machine,” Cappiello said. “While it was rebooting, they wanted me to cast my vote on another machine. I told them I would wait until that machine rebooted and try once again on that machine.”

During the confusion, Cappiello called Hardyston police to have the incident documented. Once the machine rebooted, she was able to successfully cast her vote for the Republican candidates. When a police officer arrived, she said, he escorted her out of the polling place.

“I felt comfortable leaving because Tony Alfano had just arrived to see how voting was going and he was talking to everyone inside about what took place,” Cappiello said.

She added that she’d never experienced something like this before and there is “absolutely no chance” she repeatedly filled out her ballot incorrectly.

As a candidate for town council on Election Day, Alfano, who won his race, happened upon the controversy.

“As a candidate for town council, I took a 2 p.m. reading of the polling locations and at the polling location at St. Jude I was approached by Doreen who said the voting machine kept converting all her Republican selections to Democrat selections when she went to print out the ballot. I called Board of Elections and they sent a technician over who said the machine is calibrated and there should be no reason for that type of error.”

Alfano, a Republican, said that while Cappiello’s is the only complaint of which he is aware in Hardyston, he is concerned about election integrity overall.

“I do not want to speculate or get into it because I can’t prove it, but I did see similar allegations of this going on down in Ocean County.”

‘Claim could not be substantiated’

Officials at the Sussex County Board of Elections say the machine was fine.

“A single voter at the St. Jude polling place made a claim that could not be substantiated about a machine malfunction,” said Wendy Buccino, chief clerk administrator at the county board of elections. “The machine was tested before and after the voting and proved to be operating properly. There were no other complaints about that machine by any other voter throughout the voting on Election Day.”

Follow up questions, such as whether impounding the machine was considered and if the machines are capable of flipping votes, went unanswered by deadline.

Buccino added that early voting and Election Day Voting ran smoothly at all polling sites throughout the county. In Sparta, a polling location lost power when a vehicle struck ad nearby utility pole but due to battery power back up, Buccino said the machines continued to run smoothly.

St. Jude contacts Board of Elections

After voting, Cappiello posted about her experience online, which inadvertently caused fallout for the church.

“In her post, she wrote ‘there was something fishy at St. Jude’s’ and that triggered my response because we have nothing to do with operating the election, setting it up, taking it down or anything with the polling,” said St. Jude the Apostle Pastor Rev. Michael Rodak. “We simply provide a safe location for people to come to vote.”

The church told the board of elections that if something were to happen again it would cause them to rethink their role on Election Day out of concern for the church and its parishioners.

“We had correspondence with them and county clerk Jeff Parrott, the town manager and town council are aware of it,” Rodak said. “We didn’t want people to think we were doing something to interfere with voting.”

Later that day, Cappiello said she removed all language on social media referring to St. Jude.

“Tony Alfano told me about it, and I removed any reference to the church immediately,” she said. “They had nothing to do with it. My concern was to make sure this was reported because other people may have a similar experience and be too shy to say anything. Maybe what I did will encourage another person in a similar situation to speak up.”