By Walter Elliott
NEWARK – ‘What if they held an election day – and there were no voting machines at your polling station?” was a theoretical question-turned reality for voters in parts of Newark June 8.
33 voting machines arrived after their stations opened for the party primaries 6 a.m. that Tuesday at several locations in the Central, South and West wards. Several of those 23 stations did not open until after the electronic machined had arrived later that morning.
Ryan P. Haygood, for example, went to his neighborhood station to cast his vote at 7:30 a.m. – 90 minutes after the polls’ statewide opening. Haygood, however, found no machines there.
“I was told to return later and (was) not offered a provisional ballot until I proactively requested one,” said Haygood afterward. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered voting obstacles in Newark Running elections is a massive endeavor – but we must do better.”
Haygood, a person others should not anger, went to his downtown office and started making phone calls. The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice president soon learned the extent of the late deliveries.
“Voters in much of the rest of Essex County don’t encounter these issues but voters in Newark – the state’s largest city and a majority Black city – regularly do,” said Haygood June 11. “The unfortunate reality is that the election issues in Essex County are disproportionately felt by Black and Brown voters in Newark.”
Haygood said that he knew of polling stations in Newark opening late during Nov. 2’s Presidential and General Election.
This is not the first time the NJISJ has been tackling election issues. Haygood and company had most recently advocated for the end of designing election ballots along party lines. They joined in People’s Organization for Progress, RWDSU Local 108 and other community groups in celebrating Juneteenth – and calling for reparations.
Haygood and NJISJ Democracy and Justice Program Director Henal Patel sent a June 11 open letter to Essex County Superintendent of Elections Patricia Spagno calling for an investigation on how and why voting machines in Newark arrived late and/or polling stations opening after 6 a.m.
Haygood and Patel’s letter to Spagno was co-signed by 19 other organizations, from Rutgers’ Abbott Leadership Institute and ACLU-NJ to Our Revolution Essex and Project Ready. The letter included Spagno to RSVP.
The Essex County Board of Elections normally has its contracted moving company deliver voting machines to all 22 municipalities on or before the Friday ahead of the following Tuesday election. A local media outlet found, for the June 8 primaries, that the mover was still delivering machines on June 7.
Brantley Brothers Moving & Storage, who was contracted for June primary machine deliveries, had picked up the county’s machines from the latter’s Belleville warehouse.
The company’s trucks, this time, served the most distant municipalities first and worked their way back to Newark. They were left with 33 machines Monday night and resumed their deliveries before 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Brantley Brothers owner Isaac King, on June 11, said that his employees found some of those polling stations still closed 6 a.m. June 8. King added that Spagno’s office furnished a polling station contact list that had some incorrect information.
Brantley Brothers, founded in 1967, is based out of the former Sears Roebuck department store building in the South Ward. It is one of the largest Black-owned moving and storage companies in the U.S.
The media outlet found that Spagno knew about the behind-schedule deliveries on June 5. Spagno, of West Orange, succeeded Linda von Nessi as election superintendent earlier this year.
Spagno, in her June 16 response to Haygood and Patel, told them that she is taking the matter seriously and is working to address the problem.
