NJ Election Voter Performance Sluggish Everywhere – Even in Battleground Burlington County
Listen to audio version of this article
It’s anecdotal, but the stories sludged in all day about low voter turnout on this primary Election Day, including in battleground LD8.
That’s where Assemblyman Ryan Peters and Assemblyman Joe Howarth are battling each other in the GOP Primary.
“We were well organized, we had a good plan, and we executed,” Peters – who’s running with retiring Sheriff Jean Stanfield – told InsiderNJ.
But the outcome was still unknown, of course, the long wait exacerbated by sluggish early voting.
“Very low,” Hunterdon County Clerk Mary Melfi said.
“It’s still fairly low,” Edison Democratic Committee Chairman Shariq Ahmad said.
There’s a war going on in his town.
“It’s higher than it was four years ago, but then it was very, very low,” the chair said.
Candidates in a GOP Primary in battleground Burlington were left to ponder the worst.
Or the best.
Was it the machine performing in turgid fashion?
Were they Trump voters blotting out the landscape with the lone embers of their own passion?
“Very quiet here; low turnout, not a lot of chatter. Howarth will soon be a forgotten man, never to be heard from again,” a source ho-hummed.
We don’t care anymore because we don’t matter. The Legislature always makes sure the incumbents are protected through redistricting. As a result, challengers really have no chance. The NJ voter is basically disenfranchised through the process the Legislature created to ensure their reelection. We are also disenfranchised nationally because the Legislature decided that our Electoral votes would go to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote nation-wide, not NJ.
Moreover, no one has done anything to ease our tax burden and over-regulation since last century. NJ – the land of the forgotten voter.