At stake is whether more than 10,000 of the machines used throughout the state are accurate and reliable. If Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg determines the machines are problematic, they could be decertified for use in New Jersey.
A retrofit of the machines, so they will issue paper receipts, is incomplete. And tests by Princeton University computer scientists have shown the machines' software was vulnerable to hacking and other tampering, although those findings were disputed by state election officials and Sequoia Voting Systems, the manufacturer.
The machines have been  in dispute since 2004, when Mercer County farmer Stephanie Harris was forced to vote multiple times because of an apparent malfunction. Even the poll worker couldn't say whether her choices were recorded.
In response to a lawsuit filed by Harris and fellow voting activists -- and increasing concern about the machines across the country -- the Legislature in 2005 ordered Sequoia to retrofit them with printers, so voters could be certain their choices were counted correctly.