With candidates having already taken office, it's a bit late to be determining the results of last year's election, but that's the position Monmouth County’s Board of Elections finds itself in after an investigation into an unrelated matter uncovered a technical malfunction in the voting machines used to tabulate the results.

It turns out that when technicians for voting machine vendor ES&S did work on the systems in July, they forgot to reinstall a component that ensures that USB flash media are not tabulated twice by the system. Results in six Monmouth County voting districts were affected.

The attorney general's office has advised that the vote-counting process be redone and the results recertified. Although results in most of the races are unlikely to change, one municipality, Ocean Township, is facing the prospect of a School Board race being overturned.

The race was decided in November in favor of Steve Clayton by a margin of just 20 votes. But a new tally conducted today has his opponent Jeffrey Weinstein ahead by one vote.