More Than 40 Percent Of Monmouth County's Votes Still Not Counted

MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ — When the smoke cleared Wednesday morning, there were still 150,000 to 200,000 votes that had not yet been counted, according to County Clerk Christine Hanlon. Also at that time, only about 56 percent of Monmouth County's mail-in ballots were counted.

That's not enough votes to determine who won many local races. It's also impossible to tell who won the Freeholder race, and whether Trump or Biden won Monmouth.

What hasn't been counted yet? Mail-in ballots cast on Election Day, late mail-in ballots, machine votes and provisional ballots submitted Tuesday at the polls.

The returns so far show Biden leading in Monmouth County, and the Democrats Michael Penna and Moira Nelson leading the county Freeholder race, over Republican incumbents Lillian Burry and Ross Licitra.

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What is the reason for the delay?

Due to COVID, Gov. Murphy changed how the election was done this year: Machine voting was essentially forbidden except for those with disabilities, and so most New Jersey residents had little choice but to vote by mail.

The state also extended the deadlines for how late ballots could be mailed back: The state allowed voters to have their ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 and received as late as Nov. 10, a full seven days after Election Day.

If you voted by paper ballot (provisional) at the polls Tuesday, that vote also will not be counted until Nov. 10 — at the earliest.

That's because the county has to count all the mail-in ballots first, which remember, can be received up to Nov. 10. Across New Jersey, county clerks have to wait for all the mail-in votes to come by back by Nov. 10, and then cross check to make sure someone did not vote twice, such as voting at the ballot box and also by mail-in.

"We have to wait to make sure voters haven't returned the mail-in ballot first," explained Clerk Hanlon, who herself is up for re-election and is currently ahead with votes.

However, the number of provisional and machine votes in Monmouth County is low. Most voted by mail, said the clerk.

"What I'm seeing and what I'm happy about is that it seems the provisional ballot count is going to be low," she told Patch.

Hanlon, a Republican, said she was "very upset" Gov. Murphy made the election primarily vote by mail.

Hanlon said she and a bipartisan coalition of county clerks told Murphy earlier this year they strongly disagreed with his vote-by-mail mandate.

"I'm still very upset that the governor did that, and I think most voters were upset by the mandate," Hanlon told Patch. "Because we're not going to have results for weeks. The change caused a massive strain on the infrastructure and it was a strain on resources. If we were on machines it would have been done already."

And what the suggestion that not all votes will be counted?

"(The idea of not counting votes) is just a rumor," she said. "By law every ballot in New Jersey needs to be counted."