An order signed Friday by Superior Court Judge Lee A. Solomon authorized the inspection at the request of John Gilliams, who ran fourth for three seats open on the board this year.

Gilliams' tally was 12 short of election.

Re-elected were Sara Davis and Martha Wilson. Jose Delgado, who had served on the school board for 20 years, also was elected.

Davis was re-elected president of the school board this week.

Sequoia Voting System tried to persuade Judge Linda Feinberg to quash subpoenas issued in Bergen, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean and Union counties instructing officials to turn over voting machines that showed discrepan cies in the February presidential primary.

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg has been asked to decide if the state's 10,000 electronic voting machines should continue to be used in elections, as the state contends, or whether New Jerseyans deserve a better voting system, as voting rights advocates argue.

"As to whether or not DREs (Direct Electronic Recording system) are scientifically reliable, the court will conduct a full hearing," Feinberg said while ruling on pretrial motions Tuesday and setting a May 19 trial date.

The 2005 law required voter- verified paper records by January 2008, an eminently feasible deadline. (It even added a cutting-edge audit law this January, requiring random checks on the paper records to make sure the machines are counting accurately.)

It is now clear that the state’s machines produced suspicious results in the Feb. 5 presidential primary. Rather than working to put doubts to rest, the machines’ manufacturer is resisting a proper inquiry. New Jersey needs to quickly get to the bottom of the problem to ensure voters that in November their ballots will be counted accurately.

First, there was the discovery of errors made by a handful of the machines throughout the state.

Then, Attorney General Anne Milgram delivered the news that the state will miss a June deadline to retrofit thousands of electronic voting machines with paper printers.

This does not bode well for the state's voters' part in the November presidential election, which is shaping up to be a whopper.

Five percent of the 600 electronic voting machines used in Mercer County during the Feb. 5 presidential primary recorded inaccurate voter turnout totals, county officials said yesterday.

County officials said the miscues did not affect the election re sults but expressed renewed concerns over the reliability of the machines.

The numbers from the cartridges that print out vote tallies and the paper-tape backup within the machine didn't match. Rajoppi asked her colleagues in other counties to perform the same test, and similar problems were found in voting machines for Bergen, Gloucester, Middlesex and Ocean counties.

"I'm deeply disturbed by this," Rajoppi said yesterday.

The discrepancies have rekindled concerns over the reliability of the 10,000 Sequoia Voting Systems machines used in New Jersey.

Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi says she found errors in a handful of machines when trying to verify returns.

The numbers from the cartridges that print out vote tallies and the paper-tape backup didn't match.

Rajoppi told The Star-Ledger of Newark that colleagues detected similar problems in paperless voting machines in Bergen, Gloucester, Middlesex and Ocean counties.