Atlantic County, NJ Early Voting Doesn’t Appear To Be Worth It

It’s Midterm General Election Day. The polls are about to open and the stakes couldn’t be higher. We wanted to take a look at the now completed early voting season and the vote by mail ballots, through yesterday.

For hundreds of years, we had one General Election Day. Everyone who wanted to vote, did so. Then, the votes were counted and we knew all of the winners on the very same day.

Now, we are told that it may be weeks before we know who the winners are?

It’s becoming a big problem, because the key to the American people accepting the results of an election is for it to have the sense of finality and fairness.

Since the Presidential election of 2000 was formally challenged, it has been getting worse and worse with each passing election cycle.

In New Jersey, we have 9 days of early voting. We took a look by the numbers and here’s what we have to show for it.

Actually, New Jersey has 55 days of early voting with easily accessible vote by mail. Why are these additional 9 days required?

There are 7 early voting sites in Atlantic County. Here are the number of votes cast at each:

EARLY VOTING TOTALS

Egg Harbor Township = 1,225
Mays Landing = 906
Buena Vista Township = 184
Galloway Township = 1,804
Hammonton = 603
Atlantic City = 448
Northfield = 914

TOTAL EARLY VOTES CAST = 6,084

This does not appear to be worth it.

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We reached out to Atlantic County Clerk Joe Giralo to get his take on the early voting season.

"While it appears as if early voting was more successful in the northern part of the state in Atlantic County we saw 1,000 fewer voters than last year. The cost and workforce that is needed for a 9 day period needs to be reviewed, said Giralo.

Further, "We should look at the possibility of 3 days vs 9 days of early voting,” said Giralo.

Unrelated, but, we thought of interest are the vote by mail totals in all 23 Atlantic County municipalities through yesterday.

VOTE BY MAIL RETURNS

Absecon 458
Atlantic City 1,718
Brigantine 527
Buena Borough 145
Buena Vista Township 325
Corbin City 26
Egg Harbor City 143
Egg Harbor Township 2,011
Estell Manor 82
Folsom Borough 76
Galloway Township 1,638
Hamilton Township 1,172
Hammonton 727
Linwood 489
Longport 87
Margate 509
Mullica Township 250
Northfield 504
Pleasantville 734
Port Republic 55
Somers Point 502
Ventnor 610
Weymouth Township 185