Middlesex County elections staff told the board on Nov. 5 that postal inspectors recovered 18 mail‑in ballots taken from a Woodbridge delivery route and that the county issued duplicate ballots to affected voters.

Tom Lynch summarized the county's response: the county clerk’s office learned of the missing ballots through the U.S. Postal Service, issued duplicate ballots and a notification letter to affected voters, and later received the original ballots after the postal‑inspection investigation and warrant. "Those original 18 ballots were recovered by the United States Postal Service and given to the clerk which the board of elections currently has," Lynch said. Staff said they will present any originals that were returned after the mail‑in deadline to the board for a determination about acceptance.

Public commenters and commissioners also raised election‑day operational issues: two polling places were changed on election day after threats or power outages (Avenel and a North Brunswick site); staff said they worked with emergency management, the county clerk’s office and municipal partners to move operations to adjacent facilities and to keep voting operational, issuing provisional ballots where necessary and transporting machines and poll books to the new sites. Staff said the relocations were implemented with minimal disruption and that voting resumed within roughly an hour and a half after the events.

Members of the public also raised concerns about late or missing sample ballots in several municipalities and a temporary outage of ballot‑scanning (ATV) equipment at one middle school for about half an hour; commissioners asked staff to follow up on those operational matters. Lynch said the office issued duplicate ballots and compared replacements against originals to ensure chain of custody. No changes to certification dates were announced; the board closed public comment and scheduled a follow‑up meeting for Nov. 10 at 5 p.m.