Many of the voting machines in state Sen. Joe Kyrillos’ (R-13) home town have programming problems, according to Middletown Township Clerk Heidi Brunt.

“It’s temporary and the county clerk’s office is helping us,” the clerk told PolitickerNJ.com.

Brunt said the town has encountered problems with about 40% of the voting machines in Middletown and expects to rectify the problem with the assistance of Monmouth County Clerk Claire French.

In the meantime, voters in the affected polling areas are using paper ballots.

Kyrillos is running against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

Don Watson, municipal chairman of the Democratic Party, said he’s confident the clerk will be able to correct the problem.

“The township clerk was here at the polling place,” Watson said. “What was happening was the questions on the ballots were not being registered, so at first they were dividing the questions from the candidates. People were voting for the candidates on the machines and voting on the questions on paper ballots. The clerk arrived and said that was unacceptable. She made the decision to use just paper ballots for now. It’s going very smoothly. It’s just going to be arduous to count them.

“We’re in a generator situation over here,” the party chair added, referring to the loss of power in the Hurricane Sandy-impacted township.