Essex County election officials are looking into why 23 polling locations in Newark opened without any voting machines during the June 8 primary.

"This is unacceptable," Patricia Spango, the county Superintendent of Elections, wrote in a letter to the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. The Newark-based social justice advocacy group joined a dozen other groups calling on Spango to investigate in the wake of the election.

Spango responded on June 15th, taking full responsibility for the error and vowing to prioritize Newark whenever voting machines and other election materials are delivered. 

It's still not clear why the machines arrived late. A message to Spango was not immediately returned on Thursday. 

On primary election day, voters complained that when they arrived at their polling site they were told they could only vote by provisional ballot or come back later. Voting machines eventually arrived hours after the polls had opened. 

Voting rights advocates say Newark is plagued with issues and called on Spango's office to also investigate past problems. During the general election in November, some Newark polling sites opened late, frustrating residents who showed up to vote in person rather than send their ballots by mail in what was largely a vote-by-mail election due to the pandemic.

"We look forward to working with them to ensure election issues in Newark do not persist," Henal Patel, director of the democracy and justice program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, said. "We plan to follow up on their continued investigation and are grateful for their attention to the matter."