Tiver, Torrissi plan legislation in response to Burlington County election fiasco

Bill would disallow major voting machine changes in busy Presidential Election years

EVESHAM – Residents of Burlington County were met with voting lines that ranged from one hour to all day and night during the most recent Presidential Election.

The election, which saw a historic victory for President Donald Trump, made history in Burlington for other reasons, when polling places throughout the county were featured on the news and social media for their wraparound lines.

Senator Latham Tiver (R-08) and Assemblyman Michael Torrissi Jr (R-08) plan to introduce legislation to tackle what they saw as one of the major issues that led to the voter suppression in November.

“Burlington County was the only county in the state to introduce new voting machines during a Presidential election cycle. All other counties introduced new fleets on off years, so their workers and voters had time to learn how to use them,” Tiver said.

“Our bill would require any large-scale changes to voting machines to take place on non-Presidential election years, when turnout is historically much lower.”

Tiver and Torrissi heard stories from residents throughout the county of how the multi-hour-long lines forced them to leave without casting their vote, whether it was because they had children to get home to, work to go to, or they were disabled and simply couldn’t stand for that long.

“We still don’t know how many voters were suppressed last November, and we most likely never will. We need to make sure that the disaster that happened at the county never happens again,” Torrissi said. “The new machines involved a multi-step process, much different from the past machines, and the people in charge of the county should’ve never introduced them on a Presidential year. New Jersey needs to make sure no other county makes this mistake in the future.”