The study said those steps—which included allowing people to request mail-in ballots by fax and email—led to mass confusion, overwhelming many county clerks on election day.
According to Penny Venetis, the co-director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic at Rutgers School of Law-Newark who authored the report, the internet and fax voting hastily put in play by the state in the wake of the storm was not only was illegal, but also left votes vulnerable to on-line hacking.
“Internet voting should never be permitted, especially in emergencies when governmental infrastructure is already compromised,” she said in her report.
A spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, however, said the law school’s findings ignored everything the state did in making sure as many people as possible had an opportunity to vote under what were extreme circumstances.
“The truth is that as a state, we were dealing with a disaster and catastrophic damage,” said the spokesman, Michael Drewniak. “We should be lauded for what we were able to do.”
