SULEIMAN STATEMENT ON COUNTY COMMISSIONER RECOUNT

(ABSECON) Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Michael Suleiman released the following statement about the County Commissioner recount:

“Ms. Caterson’s claim that these discrepancies were all because of ‘voter error’ is ridiculous. Anyone who watched the recount would see that the ballot scanners from ES&S had significant problems.

“The recount showed that at least 600 Atlantic County voters did not have their votes counted by the machines. Vote disenfranchisement is not acceptable, whether here or anywhere else. While I am not surprised by the ultimate result, I am disappointed there were so many issues with the vendor’s ability to properly count undervotes and overvotes. 

“Finally, it is extremely disturbing that Ms. Caterson’s first instinct was to give unofficial counts to the media and get ahead of the story,” said Suleiman.

Attorney Robert Herman of Linwood, who represented Celeste Fernandez before Judge Mendez and on appeal, also took umbrage with blaming voters:

“There should be procedures in place to look at individual ballots if the scanner detects an overvote or an undervote.” “Between just two of the Commissioner candidates, the review added 1,177 votes that weren’t counted. That’s unacceptable,” said Herman.

“That’s a lot of votes which didn’t count–and I agree–that’s unacceptable,” said Suleiman.