Hammonton mail-in ballots spark controversy

HAMMONTON—More than 1,000 mail-in ballots have created a dispute between the Hammonton First Campaign 2024 (HFC2024) and the Atlantic County Clerk’s Office. The issue of contention centers around name placement on the ballot for the three Hammonton First town council candidates.

In a press release issued by HFC2024 and emailed to The Hammonton Gazette on September 26 by Ryan Mayer, Campaign Chairperson HFC2024, the campaign states “On the Vote by Mail ballots, the names of the candidates for Hammonton Town Council for the independent party Hammonton First do not appear in the order as arranged on the party’s Bracketing Letter, which was time-stamped by the County Clerk’s Office at 11:50 a.m. on May 30, 2024.” The email included a copy of the time stamped letter Mayer was addressing in his statement.

Mayer’s press release explained that although the letter accompanied the candidate’s petitions of nomination their candidates’ names appeared in alphabetical order on the Vote by Mail ballots as opposed to the order Hammonton First had requested in the bracketing letter; an issue that HFC2024 holds Atlantic County Clerk Joseph Giralo responsible for.

According to a procedure followed over the last three years, Giralo does not personally handle the balloting process for Hammonton. Since Giralo resides in Hammonton, he said he has worked to separate himself from the process as much as possible.

“I do not handle petitions or anything political when it comes to my own hometown for ethical reasons. I never have. I never will,” Giralo said.

According to Giralo, Atlantic County Deputy Clerk Michael Sommers has handled those Hammonton duties for the last three years. Sommers confirmed that via a telephone interview with The Gazette. He said that he handles all ballots and Giralo has not been involved with the Hammonton balloting processing himself. Email correspondence between Hammonton First and the clerk’s office show that communications were sent to and responded from only Sommers account.

Regardless of the process, Giralo said he stands behind the actions of his deputy clerk.

“While I keep an arm’s length to avoid any conflict I certainly endorse and support my deputy clerk,” Giralo said.

Hammonton First claims the name order issue on the ballot is a direct violation of 2023 New Jersey Revised Statues Title 19 Elections: Section 19:14-12 - Procedure for determining position on ballot. That section includes a provision which states, “The arrangement of names of any bracketed group of candidates for any office for which more than one are to be elected shall be printed in the same order as they were arranged on the petition of nomination.”

The press release went on to state that the clerk’s office confirmed an error was made during a phone call they had with Sommers last week. They stated that Sommers said, “There was an error. There is no doubt about that.”

The Gazette reached out to Sommers by phone for comment about the call with HFC2024 and the pending issue with the ballots on Friday, Sept. 27. He confirmed that he was on a call with three representatives of Hammonton First but stated that the quote was not correct. He also commented on the bracketing letter provided by HFC2024.

Sommers said that during the call, HFC2024 representatives wanted him to admit it could have been an error on the part of the clerk’s office. He said that he could not confirm that without knowing if the letter was in the clerk’s office or their network.

“I’m not going to admit something was overlooked unless I actually overlooked it,” Sommers said.

When asked if Sommers made the statement “There was an error. There is no doubt about that,” Sommers said he told them, “Because there’s a time stamp there’s no doubt about it that this letter was in our office at that time.”

Sommers said that while the letter was in the office the time stamp does not signify who stamped it, if a copy was made of the letter or if it was given back. “I can’t say with certainty that this was actually with any petition outside that it was time stamped to show that they were at our office.”

HFC2024 said that during the May 30, 2024, visit to the clerk’s office, Giralo personally spoke with a Hammonton First representative and he was aware of the bracketing letter.

While the encounter was confirmed by Giralo, he said he did not handle the petitions in question.

“I spoke to the representative. Never touched the petitions. Never looked at the petitions,” Giralo said.

Sommers states that he was unaware of the bracketing letter and did not have it in his possession at the time he was putting the ballots together. He added that he scans everything into the network incase anything would get misplaced he would have it. Sommers went back into the system to review the documents after this issue arose and said it was not in there.

In a request from another media Sommers detailed the process in bracketing and how it applied in this scenario. “We get ‘bracketing letters’ in the mail and email where offices are bracketed together from highest to lowest offices and the associated candidates in a primary election. We have honored letters or emails requesting certain orders but in this case the letter could not be located or found within our network.

They did not file a joint petition, so names were taken directly from the petition in no particular order, list of those names were on our web page since July, two months prior to printing of the ballot. Staff enters the petitions candidates into a certification and then the petitions are scanned in and verified one more time prior to submission of the certification to begin the process proofing the ballots.”

HFC2024 reported that a Hammonton First representative sent two email requests to Sommers seeking confirmation that the candidates’ names were accurately listed on the ballot. The first request was sent on September 1 but received no response, prompting a follow-up email at 10:41 a.m. on September 5.

Sommers acknowledged receiving both emails and replied at 11:33 a.m. on September 5, stating, “Attached is the VBM [Vote by Mail] list for Hammonton, but we have not seen the first proof of the ballot yet. Once we proof it over the next couple of days, we can provide the copy of the ballot for your records.” He explained that while the request was made, the process of preparing ballots is complex and time-consuming, which affected their ability to follow up promptly.

“What’s often not understood is the chain of events outside of just one town; we receive requests from multiple locations,” Sommers said. He emphasized that they were under significant time pressure during this election cycle and did not approve the ballot until the final hours before sending it to the printer, including delays due to waiting on the courts in Atlantic City. He said the office’s focus was on processing a high volume of ballots and applications, which further strained their timeline.

Regarding the request of proofs, Sommers stated their intent was to share these to avoid issues like this, but various circumstances sometimes prevent this. “We’re on a tight schedule, especially during a presidential election, where our main priority is getting everything to the printer,” he said.

Additionally, he highlighted the urgency of mailing out ballots and managing Federal Post Card Applications (FPCAs), a procedure that allows eligible U.S. citizens to apply to register to vote, request an absentee ballot and/or update their contact information with their local election office. “In a presidential election, processing these applications requires more effort, and there’s a strict deadline. Failure to meet it means we have to answer to the federal government,” he explained.

Sommers concluded that while the clerk’s office strives to address all requests promptly, the overwhelming volume of materials, pressing printing deadlines, and the influx of requests—particularly in a presidential election—led to the oversight of not providing the proof to HFC2024.

REQUEST AND RESPONSE

While Sommers confirmed that the office had not received the certified letter HFC2024 sent requesting immediate action at the time of this report, he had received the request by email. That letter dated September 24 from HFC2024 stated that they expected the clerk’s office to take immediate corrective action. Actions stipulated in the letter included reprinted and reissued Vote by Mail ballots to over 1,000 registered voters in Hammonton and further steps to provide proofs that the names as requested by HPC2024 will appear on the remaining ballots and voting machine screens for the upcoming election.

Sommers said he responded by saying that they were not going to re-mail the ballots already sent believing it would add confusion for voters. Going forward requested adjustments would be and have been made. Ballots and voting machines were updated accordingly.

SECOND ISSUE FORCES REPRINT

According to a report originally posted on the Atlantic County Press Facebook page on Sept 26, there will be a re-print, but only for the instruction cards accompanying the ballot. That was due to an error discovered in the mailing earlier in the day.

In the post Giralo was reported as saying the printing company had acknowledged printing the instruction cards with the wrong return date of November 7 as opposed to November 5.

The printer agreed to cover the cost of printing and mailing a corrective post card (the instruction card only), totaling approximately 24,000 total pieces for Atlantic County. “Our county taxpayers will not pay for this unfortunate human error,” Giralo said addressing the instruction card misprint.

The Gazette reached out to Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, mentioned in the Facebook post for comment. Levinson confirmed his statement in the online post saying the county clerk was not at fault for the return date printing error.

HEART OF THE DEBATE

Hammonton First believes this issue affects their campaign strategy and voter outcomes. The press release stated that, “Our candidates’ names appear in a very intentional and specific order on all of our printed campaign materials, yard signs, mailings, advertisements, and digital media, and we wanted the names to appear that way on the ballot too, as always. This error is simply inexcusable.”

The order of names as they appear on the ballot is the center of the debate. Levinson does not believe that order will make a substantial difference saying it is a “tempest in a teapot.”

“In the scheme of things, the fact that it’s not on the ballot the way it is on the yard sign is kind of ridiculous. It’s truly irrelevant,” Levinson said. “Now, if they left a name off the ballot or they put them under a different party column that I would understand. But to make a much ado about this is, as I said, it’s tempest in a teapot.”

Hammonton First disagrees to the point of considering further action.

CURRENT STATUS

Litigation may be pending. The Hammonton First Campaign 2024’s press release included the following statement. “Hammonton First is exploring legal action against the County Clerk’s Office for what it believes is a violation of New Jersey election law, election interference, and a brazen example of voter disenfranchisement.”

Any legal action on the grounds listed by Hammonton First would require proving the violation of the 2023 New Jersey Revised Statues Title 19 Elections: Section 19:14-12 - Procedure for determining position on ballot. Election Interference would require the group prove the Clerk’s Office had made efforts to change the outcome of election. Voter Disenfranchisement would require Hammonton First to show proof that the Clerk’s Office was depriving an individual or group of the right to vote.

The Gazette also reached out to the three Hammonton First candidates Sam Rodio, Steve Furgione and Jimmy Matro. All three candidates stated that they were not on the conference call between Hammonton First representatives and Sommers and had no further comment regarding the current situation.

Ultimately, while Giralo is responsible for the office’s operations, the specific actions of his staff also come into play. The bracketing letter may violate New Jersey election law, however, Sommers claimed he had no knowledge of it when preparing the ballots. However, no proof was provided.

The Hammonton First candidates’ names do appear on the ballot, grouped under their affiliation. Determining how the order of names might influence the outcome of the 1,000 mail-in ballots is difficult at best. For now, the potential impact on the election rests on the voters unless further legal action is taken.