Mail-In Ballots: The First Wave
Long before Election Day, the counting process quietly begins with vote-by-mail ballots. As these ballots arrive at county Boards of Elections, they undergo a crucial first step: signature verification. Election officials, who are from different political parties, compare the signature on the outer envelope to the one on file in the voter registration system. Once verified, the ballots are securely stored. State law allows officials to begin opening the outer envelopes and preparing the ballots for scanning up to five days before Election Day. This pre-processing helps manage the volume but comes with a strict rule: no results can be tabulated or released until the polls officially close on election night. If a ballot has a correctable issue,
like a missing signature, the county must notify the voter and provide a chance to 'cure' the defect so their vote can be counted.
Election Day: Machines, Paper, and Provisionals
On Election Day itself, most voters cast their ballots on electronic voting machines at polling places. These machines create a voter-verifiable paper audit trail, ensuring there’s a physical record of every vote. At the end of the night, poll workers close out the machines, which generate a results tape. These tapes, along with the paper records, are securely transported to the county election office. Some voters, however, will need to use a provisional ballot. This happens if a voter's eligibility is in question—for instance, if they moved within the county but didn't update their address, or if records show they were sent a mail-in ballot but they wish to vote in person. These paper ballots are kept separate and are not counted on election night. They serve as a failsafe to ensure no eligible voter is turned away while preventing anyone from voting twice.
The Canvass: Bringing It All Together
After the polls close at 8 p.m., the main event begins. County officials start tabulating the votes from the in-person voting machines and begin scanning the mail-in ballots that were prepared earlier. Mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day have six days to arrive at the county office to be included in the count. This period is known as the canvass, where all valid ballots are brought together for an official tally. It’s during this time that provisional ballots are researched. Election officials verify the voter’s registration and check to ensure they didn't also return a mail-in ballot. Only after confirming the voter is eligible and hasn't already voted is their provisional ballot counted. This meticulous, step-by-step verification is why final results are never available on election night.
Certification: Making It Official
The final step is the certification of the election results. After all valid mail-in and provisional ballots are counted, the county Board of Canvassers, a bipartisan body, meets to review and officially approve the final tallies. This process includes conducting post-election audits, where a random sample of ballots is hand-counted to ensure the machine tallies were accurate. Once the county results are certified, they are sent to the New Jersey Secretary of State. A state-level board then meets to aggregate the results from all 21 counties and formally certify the statewide winners. This multi-layered process, from county-level checks to state-level confirmation, is designed to ensure accuracy and public confidence in the final outcome.
