Mail processing equipment had trouble reading addresses on some completed absentee ballots, returning them to voters.
TRENTON -- A small number of voters in at least three counties have had their mail-in absentee ballots returned to them due to a mail processing glitch.
Somerset County Clerk Brett Radi told mycentraljersey.com that of the thousand of ballots distributed, between 50 and 100 completed ballots never made it to the Board of Elections and were instead rerouted back to the senders' addresses.
The Asbury Park Press reported a similar problem in Monmouth County because of a similar "envelope design flaw" that caused postal service equipment to misread the address.
The Monmouth County clerk opened up a hotline -- (732) 303-2900 -- for voters to find out if their ballots made it to their final destination.
A U.S. Postal Service spokesman for the southern and central parts of the state said Monday the issue appeared contained there to Monmouth County.
Return addresses on the first batch of ballots mailed out were too close to the mailing address window, spokesman Raymond Daiutolo said. The pieces of mail also lacked a bar code that would have helped the equipment identify the mailing address.
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The reading problem was fixed within a day or two and they are no longer experiencing any issues, he said.
"We embrace our role in the mail process and we're working hard to ensure a swift turnaround of all mail," he said.
George Flood, the U.S. Postal Service spokesman for north Jersey, said the problem has been reported in Hunterdon County, where the pieces of mail were also printed without identification marks that its machines scan for. The equipment then mistakenly read the return address when the envelopes were run through.
Hunterdon County Clerk Mary Melfi told mycentraljersey.com she did not know how many ballots were affected but it was "enough to be a problem."
Flood said the postal service was in close contact with counties. Some mail processing centers have "tweaked" their equipment, he said, and county offices have reprinted their mailings.
A postal service spokesman for eastern New Jersey did not return a call for comment.
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.