MANVILLE – “Someone has to count them.”

So said Peg Schaffer, the chair of the Somerset County Democratic Committee, Thursday night as committee members held up sheets of paper.

This was a convention by public ballot.

Schaffer first asked voters who wanted to endorse Andy Kim to raise their sheets of paper. Staffers went around counting them and got to 106.

When Schaffer called for Tammy Murphy supporters to vote the same way, the count was 207.

Sure, this was a solid win for the First Lady, but all seemed a bit strange.

“Why didn’t they just collect them?” Kim wondered afterwards.

That wasn’t a bad point. The way voting took place, it really was unclear if people voted more than once, or even if those waving a sheet of paper were truly entitled to vote.

Kim, who spoke to reporters in a walk-in closet (really) off the convention floor at a local VFW hall, also talked about the pressure of county leaders. Schaffer had endorsed Murphy.

Kim claimed that some voters told him they backed Murphy because it looked better, but that, “I’m with you in June.”

This is what Kim is banking on. Convention endorsements are great, but they are the insiders; he’s depending on average Democratic voters in the June primary.

Kim, just for the record, has won five county committee endorsements, although he’s lost the last two – Bergen on Monday and Somerset on Thursday.

Speaking of so-called average voters, a Monmouth University poll on Wednesday said Murphy has higher name recognition than Kim, but lower favorability ratings.

Voters knowing you, but not liking you, is not a good position for a candidate.

After accepting the Somerset endorsement and posing for photos with a bunch of admirers, the First Lady was asked about the poll.

She acknowledged that she needs to get out and talk to average people. The convention circuit offers an opportunity to converse, but in truth, these are party professionals – at least to a certain extent – not “real”  people.

“I love talking to people,” Murphy said. “This (convention) is one piece of the puzzle. I’m going to be travelling up and down the state. I’m going to earn every single vote.”

She added, “I’m going to show up and you will see me – like a gnat. I’ll be everywhere.”

Schaffer, at the start of the convention, dismissed a motion from the floor for a “secret vote.”

Asked about that afterwards, she said the proper way to do that would have been to propose “suspending the rules.”

However, that would have required a supermajority of the committee and there was no chance of that happening.

In other words, there was no chance of a secret vote.