FREEHOLD, NJ – Monmouth County Clerk M. Claire French announced today that a test of the county’s election equipment on Monday was a success.

The trial run involved all Monmouth County municipal clerks reading and submitting vote data from all 916 results cartridges as part of a countywide test election.

“Our test proved that the cartridges across all 53 Monmouth County municipalities can be read simultaneously in about an hour,” County Clerk M. Claire French said. “I am pleased to announce that the test of our election equipment was successful.”

This test makes good on French’s promise to hold a test election in advance of the upcoming election season. A special school election is scheduled for West Long Branch on March 10, 2015.

“We are grateful for the cooperation of all the municipal clerks in setting aside the time to test the system,” she added.

For this test election, each of Monmouth County’s municipal clerks were provided with two vote cartridges for each of their election districts and a laptop to read the cartridges.

This test follows a computer problem that caused the delay in tabulating and posting the County’s unofficial election results to the County website on Nov. 4. That issue was traced back to the operating system on the four laptops used to create the results cartridges for that election.

“The delay in posting the results was not acceptable,” said French. “We determined the cause and conducted this test election to make sure the reporting of the results can be done in a most timely fashion.”

On Monday, a handful of towns had issues not related to the cartridges or laptops.

“Five towns had minor issues related to internet connectivity or security access to the election portal,” said John Zawadski, the County’s IT Director. “Each town has resolved their issues.”

“The most important issue is always the integrity and accuracy of the ballot,” said French. “We have a team that works to make sure that the ballots are counted, accurate and timely.”

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