Good morning, New Jersey. Election day again.
Polling stations on the Old Bridge are now open, where voters of the 4th Chamber will vote for a seat in the township council for the second time in 139 days.
Democrat Jill DeCara, a school board member, ousted incumbent President Marco Razzoli from the Republicans last November by 11 votes, but Supreme Court Justice Thomas Daniel McCloskey tossed in the election, finding that 27 voters received the wrong ballot and 17 of them lost.
McCloskey pleaded guilty to the State Department of Elections, saying the statewide voter database did not meet the boundaries set in the 2011 redevelopment map, put voters from odd-numbered houses on one side of Cymbeline Drive in House 2, and even-numbered houses on opposite sides. Cymbeline Drive, who lives in House 4.
Today’s election is a replacement for the November 2, 2021 general election.
This is the third snap election in five weeks in the three municipalities that Joe Biden held in 2020. The GOP has already won two of them, and a sweep would be a harbinger of what will happen this fall.
Republicans won the Feb. 15 election to win a seat on the Maywood District Council. The elections in November were equal.
Voters in South Toms River also became Republicans in the March 15 election to decide the fate of the November 2020 race, which ended in a draw. Prolonged court battles and an appeals court, which seemed to be in no hurry, led to this place being vacant for more than a year.
Early elections have taken place as Biden’s national claims remain under water – Fr. A poll by the University of Monmouth, published last week had Biden’s approval at 40% -48% nationally – and more recently Rutgers-Eagleton poll For the first time since taking office in 2018, Governor Phil Murphy’s preferences have been reversed: 33% -38%. The same poll shows that 52% of New Jersey residents think the state is on the wrong track.
Razzoli was elected Democrat, served as chairman of the municipal party from the Democratic Party and sought to nominate his party for mayor in 2019. After the primaries, Rosoli moved to the Republicans and ran against MP Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) in Congress in the New 12th District of Jersey.
Late last year, Razzoli participated in the fight against State Senator Samuel Thompson (R-Old Bridge) in the Republican primaries, but later declined.
2021 was his first municipal campaign under a new party appointment.
DeCar’s lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court to hear the case after Court of Appeal Judge Carmen Messana agreed with McCloskey that some Cymbeline Drive residents had been registered in the wrong chamber for several years. But the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Last week, Middlesex County officials told the New Jersey Globe that they could ask the state to pay the costs associated with the new election because the blame lies with them and not with the county clerk.
Polling stations are open from 6.00 to 20.00. The ballot boxes will be opened in the Old Bridge and in the office of the county election commission in East Brunswick.
