OCEAN COUNTY – A candidate claimed that the County Commissioners were awarding a contract to a business that donated to them, a violation of pay-to-play laws. The county said the issue stems from new state regulations and that nothing was done illegally.
At least four firms could be in the running for the contract for new voting machines, according to Ocean County Administrator Carl Block, but the choice may boil down to Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) voting machines and Dominion Voting Systems.
The county is purchasing the new machines for upcoming elections. The new voting machines are required due to a state mandate. The county currently uses the Sequoia Voting Systems AVC Advantage Voting Machine which need to be replaced because they are fully electronic but don’t have a paper backup for each individual vote.
Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation on March 30 that requires voting machines which produce a voter-verifiable paper ballot, which allows for an election audit to do a 100% match with cast ballots.
During a recent meeting of the Board of Commissioners, Philip Nufrio, a Democrat candidate for County Commissioner, read a statement accusing County Clerk Scott Colabella and Block of delaying the purchase of the new machines. He also stated campaign finance reports showed Colabella and Block received $11,400 in combined campaign donations from Adam Perna and his company, Election Graphics.
Nufrio said staff from the Ocean County Board of Elections recommended purchasing the voting machines from ES&S and on June 21, the Board of Elections Commissioners voted to purchase the ES&S voting machines, based on the recommendation of their professional staff.
He also said Perna represented Dominion at multiple meetings with the Board of Elections, including a May 4 session that was not open to the public. During that meeting the Dominion machines were demonstrated to Election Supervisors and IT staff.
Nufrio accused the Board of pay to play, saying the contract was worth $10 million which could be awarded to Dominion Voting Systems at the August 18 County Commissioners meeting. His running mate, Rita Kopacz, also attended that meeting.
He added that while the Board of Elections voted to purchase the ES&S machines, the “commissioners have chosen to ignore their choice so that you can award the contract to Dominion. Why would you do this? Well, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, a representative of Dominion has contributed $96,800 to the campaigns of Commissioners (Joseph) Vicari, (Virginia) Haines, (Jack) Kelly, (Gerry) Little, and (Gary) Quinn.”
Nufrio stated, “I have done some research on my own and have found no such contributions from ES&S to the commissioners. It seems to me that you are planning to ignore the bi-partisan Board of Elections recommendations and choice of ES&S in order to purchase voting machines from Dominion, after you received $96,800. I find this to be a blatant conflict of interest.”
The candidate called for the Board to “reconsider your decision and recuse yourself or else return the money you received in campaign contributions from Dominion. This is a question of ethical integrity and the integrity of our elections,” Nufrio added.
He said that Perna and his company Election Graphics have donated in total, $134,200 to currently elected Ocean County officials and administrators, including Colabella ($6,800), Block ($4,600), County Surrogate Jeffrey Moran ($13,000), County Sheriff Michael Mastronardi ($13,000) and County Commissioners ($96,800 total) Joseph Vicari, Virginia Haines, Jack Kelly, Gerry Little, and Gary Quinn.”
Nufrio also said that during a June 21 Board of Elections public meeting, professional staff raised concerns about the Dominion voting machines including voter privacy, the reliability of the printers, and operational use.
According to Nufrio, the Board of Elections staff noted that the ES&S machines were better than those of Dominion and easier for the voter to use. Staff also noted that the Dominion voting machine printers are typically used for a home office and the process of moving the machines in the back of a truck could result in system failures.
Prior to each election, voting machines must be delivered from the county warehouse to every voting precinct in the County.
Nufrio said despite the Board of Elections decision to purchase the ES&S voting machines, “Ocean County officials are now issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP), in an attempt to award the contract to Dominion, whose representatives have donated $134,200 to their campaign accounts.”
County Administrator Carl Block told Jersey Shore Online.com he was present at the recent Board of Commissioners meeting where Nufrio read his statement. “There were two meetings where the Board discussed their recommendation about the e-poll books and voting machines. I noticed he didn’t know about the e-poll books at all. We are mandated to buy both for the entire general election to do early voting.”
Block added, “we don’t have enough voting machines and the state is mandating early voting this year so we have to buy some additional machines. With that you can only buy voting machines that are certified by the state of New Jersey. Right now, I think there is four. It is a very limited audience and it is controlled by the state.”
Nufrio took issue with the alleged omission of voting machines not being certified by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the federal agency responsible for certifying all election equipment.
Block said that it was the state that certified the machines. “They certify yes or no. If they needed to be certified by the Feds that is a different issue. It is up to the state. Both Dominion and ES&S are certified by the state. We put out an RFP. The RFP can be answered by anyone who can meet it. I did not do the RFP, that was done by purchasing. I don’t know who is going to submit.”
Block said firms that were selling the machines had to recently be certified as “they were all running to keep up with the State when they said they wanted to do early voting as a policy decision. Then they started talking about e-poll books, well we never had any. We needed the new voting machines because we needed to be compliant with the paper trail. They have been running to catch up with themselves.”
He noted that many of the other 21 counties of New Jersey were in the same boat as Ocean because the state dictates how many early voting sites each county must have. “No less than seven no more than 10 that they will pay for. If you want more that is okay but they won’t pay for it. Most of the state, like us, we’re going to buy the number of machines that the state will pay for.”
Block said that Nufrio’s figure of $10 million was incorrect. “I don’t know where he got that number. As to the issue of the printer, there were five demonstrations.”
“They use stock printers. The Dominion system was a print on demand system. When you go in you put the e-poll book and give your name, town and voting district and they give you a card like a hotel key which is magnetic which changes information as each voter comes in and every voting machine in every early voting district has every town on it. Theoretically, you could vote anywhere. This is all a state design,” Block added.
“In this case it prints a paper ballot and that printer obviously, is subject to any jostling around during transport but voting machines in every voting place are interchangeable. There are spares so that would not be a problem either. That is something with ES&S machine and in that case they have an onboard printer which is the same problem – you put them in a truck and deliver them like we do with every other voting machine in the county,” Block added.
“I wasn’t there for the meeting where the staff commented so I don’t know what they said. I don’t know that they issued an official recommendation or they were asked or prompted any conversation with the (Board of Election) Commissioners. I do know from being at the meeting I was present which was after that, the Commissioners of which is there is two Republicans and two Democrats. There was a motion made and seconded and there was a two-two tie.”
Block stressed, “you can only buy what has been certified by the state. It is not like we are buying anything that is sub-standard they all have to meet the requirements of the state.”
“I ran for county clerk in 2008, 13 years ago. Did Perna make a donation to me? Probably. Adam Perna doesn’t work for Dominion. He is a printer. He prints the ballots. I’m assuming they went back 10 to 15 years and added up a total. I know I have not gotten a donation of any kind for any office. I became administrator in July 1, 2010 and do not hold any political office. I haven’t received any donations since that date,” Block added.
The Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the ordinance to fund the purchase of the machines.
No member of the Board of Commissioners responded to Nufrio’s statements during the meeting. Nufrio and Kopacz are challenging incumbent Commissioner Gary Quinn and Barbara “Bobbi Jo” Crea who is seeking the vacated seat of fellow Republican Gerry P. Little. Little is not running for re-election in the November 2 election.
