Human error: At least a dozen people in Ocean County town receive ballot for wrong town

At least a dozen people in Plumsted Township opened their ballots to find the wrong town printed on the it, and according to Ocean County Clerk Scott Colabella, it was due to human error.

News 12 Staff

Oct 1, 2020, 7:07 PM

Updated 1,547 days ago

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At least a dozen people in Plumsted Township opened their ballots to find the wrong town printed on the it, and according to Ocean County Clerk Scott Colabella, it was due to human error.
Last week, 73 ballots were mistakenly mailed to residents of the borough of Point Pleasant, and this week, residents who live in the New Egypt area found ballots meant for Ocean Township. The ballots were mailed over the last several days, and the mistake has now been noticed by several families, who are worried their votes won't count and say this is exactly why they wanted to vote in person.
The clerk's office reports nine people have already called them about the erroneous ballots. Kristina Lewis is one of the people who received an Ocean Township ballot instead of a Plumsted one.
“It's frustrating,” says Lewis. “I've been waiting in longer grocery lines than I ever did to vote. I worked the polls last year. I know what the lines look like. They don't exist, even if we had to take extra safety measures, we could wait in line to vote. It's really not that big of a deal. So, it's so frustrating to know that I can go to DMV and stand in line, but I can't stand in line to vote."
"We take very seriously the importance of accuracy in administering the election process and regret any innocent human error that may occur in processing a record volume of over 400,000 vote by mail ballots to voters,” says Colabella.
If you find a mistake, don't call your local town -- call the county clerk's office.
Ballots have gone out to voters in 30 of the 33 towns located in Ocean County.