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A video of someone having difficulty choosing a Republican candidate is not evidence of fraud. State election officials stated that they are unaware of any deprivation of voters’ rights and have voting machine protection measures to protect the integrity of the vote.
It is not clear what caused the problem, but in the past, election officials have stated that this often happens when the machine is not calibrated.
A viral video of a New Jersey voter struggling with a touch-screen voting machine was widely circulated on social media, claiming that the machine prevented the name of the Republican governor candidate from being selected.
"There is nothing to look at here, leave!" A Facebook header read in 56-second editing.
The conservative Gateway Pundit website wrote an article about the video with the headline: "More frauds discovered in New Jersey elections-voting machines do not allow referendums to vote for Republican governor candidates."
In the video, a voter repeatedly tried to vote for Republican Jack Ciattarelli, but they were all unsuccessful. But when she mentioned the name of Ciatarelli's Democratic opponent, Governor Phil Murphy, the machine seemed to work. (It also seemed to work when she touched the name of the Republican candidate for the State Senate listed below Ciattarelli). After she asked for help, a poll worker could be heard telling her to touch the center of the name and hold it. This doesn't seem to work either.
The video seems to be real. However, as we all know, the touch screen voting opportunity alone fails. However, this is not evidence of fraud, and we cannot find more examples of similar failures in this election.
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The video showed that the failure occurred in District 11, Middletown, Monmouth County.
Mary Desano, the county’s election director, told PolitiFact that her office was aware of the video, but had not received any news from voters or any voting staff. She said she encouraged voters to contact her office so that they can investigate the issue further.
Desano added: "It is important to note that with the new voting machine, voters can double-check their votes twice before voting. This is a guarantee to protect the integrity of the vote."
The Gateway Pundit story shared another video that appeared to show a similar problem in Bergen County, the largest in the state.
Bergen’s election director, Debra M. Francica, admitted that a small number of voters in the two locations were unable to select specific candidates on the county’s older voting machines, but said that technicians tested the machines and found no problems.
Francesca told PolitiFact that technicians recommended that polling staff tell voters to press hard with their thumbs or stylus to make a choice. She said in an email: "Our office is not aware of any cases where voters have been deprived of their rights."
Ciattarelli defeated Murphy with approximately 43,000 votes in Monmouth County, winning 58.9% of the votes. In Bergen, Murphy defeated Catarelli by approximately 14,000 votes, with a winning percentage of 52.4%.
The video shows two different types of voting machines, and we don’t know what caused the problem. In the past, election officials have stated that these types of errors often occur when the machine is not calibrated.
Especially for older voting machines, such as those used in Bergen County, if the touch screen and the digital display below it are not aligned correctly, the machine is considered uncalibrated. The election officials told us before that temperature changes, rough handling, or even just the passage of time may cause the screen to fail to be calibrated, and some machines require frequent manual calibration to keep working properly.
Videos of a malfunctioning New Jersey voting machine are being shared online, claiming that they are evidence of election fraud.
Some touch screen machines do seem to have problems. But none of the videos proved that voters were deprived of the ability to vote for the candidates they chose, or that the machines did not work properly at different times in the end.
The statement is authentic because the video appears to be authentic. But this is not evidence of fraud. Our assessment of the claims is mostly wrong.
Gateway Pundit, "More frauds found in New Jersey elections-voting machines do not allow referendums to vote for Republican governor candidates", November 4, 2021
PolitiFact, Viral Video of Mississippi Governor's Runoff Voting Machine Failure, Explanation, August 29, 2019
Email interview, Debra M. Francica, Bergen County Election Director/Registration Commissioner, November 4, 2021
Email interview, Mary DeSarno, Monmouth County Election Director/Registrar, November 5, 2021
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