NJ Elections 2023: A look at the new voting machines in Bergen County
Raw video of the new voting machines as a NorthJersey.com reporter votes in the New Milford primary election on June 6, 2023.
Danielle Parhizkaran, NorthJersey.com
Are you afraid of computerized voting machines?
Bergen County is offering three training sessions in August to prepare voters for the November election, as this year’s presidential election is underway.
Find out where and when you can participate here:
- Ridgewood: Monday, August 19, 2:00 p.m., Village Hall Senior Lounge, 131 N. Maple Ave. Please register online with CommunityPass.
- Hackensack: Tuesday, August 20, 9:30 a.m., United Senior Activity Center of Hackensack, 101 Hudson St.
- Wallington: Monday, August 26, 10:30 a.m., Wallington Senior Activity Center, 24 Union Blvd.
All meetings are public.
Residents may have seen one of the new Dominion machines that the county council bought last year for $15 million to replace its 30-year-old equipment. The county’s voters used the machines for the first time last fall. But some were confused by the touch screens and printouts, and with the November presidential election likely to increase voter turnout, the county election commissioner’s office isn’t taking any chances.
“For voters who only vote for president every four years, this will be the first in-person presidential election since 2016, because in 2020 everything was done by mail-in ballot due to the pandemic,” said Heather Mailander, Ridgewood’s town clerk. “The county is going to various towns that request it to show residents how the voting machines work.”
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To make things even more exciting, the election official offers instructions for two types of voting machines on his website: a “voting pad” on the “voting instructions” page and a more vertical, boxy model on the “new voter instructions videos” page. It’s unclear if the screen looks the same on both types of machines.
The standard eight-step election process is listed on the office’s website: co.bergen.nj.us/superintendent-of-elections-temp/voting-instructions. For more information, call 201-336-6109.
