By Tyler Barth
The ballots still are being delivered for the July 7 primary. But already, the fireworks may have started.
The Morris County Clerk’s Office was informed earlier this week that a mail truck caught fire Saturday in Morris Township, and according to the U.S. Postal Service, an unknown amount of ballots may have been destroyed.
The fire, caused by an unspecified mechanical failure, burned the truck to a crisp. The unnamed driver was able to evacuate and is unharmed. Hillside Hose Company No. 1 responded to the fire and extinguished it.
How many ballots were destroyed is uncertain, according to county officials.
The Postal Service “couldn’t give us a definitive answer, like were there 20 or 30 ballots or whatever,” said Deputy County Clerk John Wojtaszek.”There’s no way of knowing who got ballots, who didn’t get ballots. The post office couldn’t even tell us whether there were ballots on the truck.”
According to Wojtaszek, whenever a ballot is lost or destroyed, residents simply have to call in to the County Clerk’s office and request a duplicate.
Once a vote has been cast, the voter’s identity is logged and any future attempts to cast another vote will not be counted, preventing this from turning into the voter fraud so feared by the federal government.
Addresses that may have been affected by the fire include:
- Lord William Penn Drive, 22-40 & 47-1
- Baer Court, 4, 8, & 15-3
- Jason Lane, 4-14 & 15-1
- Colonel Evans Drive, 10-22 & 23-1
- Bradford Court, 5, 3, 2, 1
- Sussex Avenue, 632 – 500
All registered voters who have declared their parties who have not already received their ballots should apply for a duplicate from the Clerk’s Office.
Wojtaszek also stressed that physical polling places are set up specifically for the disabled, and very few people in the county meet the criteria to physically vote.
Anyone who shows up to the polls on voting day that does not meet the criteria will have to vote on a provisional ballot, which is given less priority and is scrapped if the voter sends in a mail-in ballot, again to prevent voter fraud.
