The Burlington County Commissioners have announced the receipt of the final report from the independent special counsel detailing its review and analysis of the 2024 election and its recommendations for improvements.
The 79-page report from Connell Foley LLP updated the findings and recommendations from the law firm’s interim report, submitted in April, before the June primary election. Both the interim report and the law firm’s final report are posted online on the county website and the County Commissioners page.
The commissioners appointed Connell Foley to be the independent special counsel in January to review all aspects of the election, including the deployment of new voting machines, the locations and makeup of voting districts, poll-worker training and management.
The law firm specified the report was based on interviews with dozens of county election officials, voters, poll workers, municipal officials, voting technology and support vendors and others with direct knowledge of the county’s election process.
Several individuals who were interviewed before the interim report’s release were interviewed again before the final report. The report also states that many new additional people were interviewed, including 14 poll workers.
Thousands of pages of records were also reviewed, including voter data, machine deployment records, poll worker training materials and diagnostic reports, including ones from the 2025 primary. More than 76,000 voters cast ballots during the primary election, amounting to about 21% of the county’s nearly 360,000 registered voters.
Among the issues cited in both reports were a general lack of communication, coordination and collaboration among county election offices, the rollout of new voting machines during a busy presidential year, unbalanced election districts overdue for redistricting, inadequate poll-worker training with the new machines and voter and poll-worker aversion to new technology.
The reports also identified the number of voting machines, accessibility and layout of certain polling locations, and delays in resolving some technological issues at polling places.
Recommendations covered numerous aspects of the election process, including poll-worker recruitment and training, voter education, recalculating the number of voting machines in each polling location and other changes. Both reports recommended adjusting election districts to ensure none of them is too large, boosting the available technological support, expanding early-voting locations and hours, seeking more input from local municipal clerks and increasing communication and collaboration between the different election offices.
While most of the findings and recommendations were the same as those specified in the interim report, the final report did provide updated information and details, including actions taken before and after the June primary election. Among them were expanded poll-worker recruitment by the election board, bipartisan public outreach targeting new poll workers more comfortable with new voting technology, and poll-worker compensation for participating in training and expanded voter education.
The county also purchased additional machines so that each polling location has at least one ballot-marking device for every 750 registered voters; expanded voter education with in-person outreach about vote-by-mail and early voting options; and redrew the boundaries of election districts in five county towns, including Medford and Mount Laurel to ensure the number of registered voters in each election district is appropriate.
Additional redistricting will occur in other towns in 2026 and ensuing years when appropriate.
The report also recommended the county invest in permanent WiFi at all polling locations to ensure connectivity of electronic poll books and smoother poll openings. The county announced last month it planned to use a $200,000 grant secured in the FY 2025-’26 state budget for the project.
The commissioners said the recommendations already implemented were notable but stressed that additional actions by the Elections Board are needed.
The commissioners also called for bipartisan collaboration to make additional improvements.
“The report states that the root causes of many of the problems were due to political tension, mistrust and personality conflicts,” Commissioner Director Felicia Hopson said. “This is unacceptable. Politics should have no business in how our elections operate.”
