New Jersey is unique in so many ways, not the least of which is our 4-year election cycle. Unlike most other states, which combine their federal and state races and take a break every other year, we have critical elections each and every year. But, unfortunately, we have a hard time keeping voters' attention, so the cycle ends up looking like this:
Year One: the Presidential Year - even in years where the outcome is a foregone conclusion, voters will come out to register their choice. In 2008, NJ voter turnout was 73%.
Year Two: the Gubernatorial Year - one of only two states that elect their governor the year after electing a president, turnout drops off significantly, but there's still pretty good participation. In 2009, NJ voter turnout was 47%.
Year Three: the Midterms - whether a referendum on the President, or the Congress, the midterms carry national attention, but never seem to draw the same voter participation. Despite the highly charged atmosphere in 2010, NJ voter turnout was only 43%.
And now Year Four: the Legislative Election - the entire legislative branch of government in our state is up for election - all 40 Senate seats, all 80 Assembly seats. And, what kind of turnout should we expect? Well, if history serves as a guide - in 2007, NJ voter turnout was a paltry 32%.
Today's the 91st anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. In 1971, the first boss I ever had (later) - Rep. Bella Abzug - got Congress to designate August 26 as Women's Equality Day. Real equality is of course a function of the opportunities and well-being of masses of women. We're not there - in Jersey, or the world. But a few women deserve mention today.
Update 9:08: Yes 46 No 32 Bill now going to 2nd reading for purpose of amendment, to alter the in-state-requirement. Asm Gusciora, in a point of order is delaying because the amendments are not on their desks in paper form. He is informed by Speaker Oliver that they're on each assembly member's computer.
Update 8:50: A first for us: Twitter has shut down our feed, for a few hours at least, it looks like. We have exceeded the allowable number of Tweets. We're going to switch our coverage of the Assembly hearing to @deciminyan Update 6:26 Nearly 5-and-a-half hours late, the NJ Assembly session LIVE video feed begins. Watch here. NJN is now also broadcasting LIVE.
Update 6:08 OK, here we go. Follow Deciminyan's Tweets @bluejersey.
Update 6:04: 5 hours late, and counting. It may be a foregone conclusion but Star-Ledger is reporting Gov. Christie told the New York Times today is an "extraordinary day for New Jersey.
Outside, the pro-labor rally - with its signs, its unifying tee shirts and inflatable rat meant to provoke anti-labor Democrats - is winding down, after a day when rain threatened more than it poured.
But inside, now at three-and-one-half hours past the posted start time of the session, the New Jersey Assembly has still not settled down to meet.
Deciminyan is in the room - has been for hours - and is on his second power charge of his laptop. He's live-Tweeting. And we don't know whether they'll get started in 5 minutes or an hour. Right now, there are almost no Assembly members in the chamber.
Follow us at @bluejersey. Thank you to all of you who have retweeted us today, and a big Welcome to all our new Twitter followers and new members of the Blue Jersey community.
Steve Sweeney - Meanwhile, adopting a defensive posture once again against the pro-labor rally outside, 'union man', Democrat and NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney has once again messaged the press by sending widely a copy of Bob Ingle's column, Public unions' stunts sure to backfire. I'll leave it to today's Assembly vote, history, and better-paid commentators than myself to decide who's pulling "stunts" and whether they will "backfire".
I'll just say that Sweeney's shipping out articles favorable to him to reporters strikes me as coming from a position of weakness, and not of strength. If there's a tipping point in the balance of whether he can really continue to lead Democrats, he may have already exceeded it. Time will tell. But I think it looks bad for the mighty muscled Sweeney to show such naked interest in how he looks to reporters.
S2937, the Christie-Sweeney plan to dramatically alter collective bargaining rights in New Jersey, passed the Senate this afternoon 24-15. The Assembly version - A4133, as introduced by Lou Greenwald (D) and Declan O'Scanlon (R) - is next, first in Assembly Budget (which Greenwald chairs), then to the full Assembly for a vote. Gov. Christie will almost certainly sign it into law if it reaches his desk. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, who has pushed this bill despite a body that may not be warm to it, said "bold, demonstrative large steps" are what's needed now.
Labor - CWA Political Director Bob Masters told the Assembly minutes ago that "real Democrats" would have killed this bill. Charlie Wowkanech, NJ AFL-CIO President said, "Where labor has no voice, democracy has no future."
Gov. Christie owes Steve Sweeney - Senate President, Democrat and 'union man' - a great deal for introducing and championing this bill. Its motive and agenda is largely Republican, as any student of current events can see. And Sweeney is choosing to use his position in the Senate to ram home legislation that threatens the long tradition of pubic employee labor having the power of collective bargaining negotiation to help determine working conditions, a fundamental of the Party he leads.
As 12mileseastofTrenton notes, Sweeney's own caucus voted against him 2-1, and the calls for his ouster as Senate President may grow louder.
The Norcross Provision As we noted earlier, the Senate bill was amended today to remove a much-disputed and cost-ineffective provision to limit public workers' access to out-of-state medical care. But Assemblyman Greenwald appears interested in restricting public worker medical care to inside-Jersey, a highly debatable concept given for example that of the top 50 cancer hospitals in the U.S., none is in New Jersey. The part of the bill snidely referred to as the "Norcross provision" comes about as New Jerseyans calculate who might have stood to benefit from this legislation, or at least that part of it. Several of the world's best hospitals in the world are just outside New Jersey's borders, in NYC and in Philadelphia. Norcross, Sweeney's benefactor and South Jersey Democratic Party boss, is Chair of Cooper Hospital in Camden, which has recently stepped up advertising to compete with premiere hospitals in Philadelphia. Restricting public workers to NJ facilities would certainly have boosted traffic to Cooper, and the fact that the provision would have furthered Sweeney's benefactor's interests added to the sense that this was payback to Sweeney's benefactor for Sweeney's monumental effort to ram this home against a rich ethical tradition of his own Party.
Along with Assemblymembers Riley and Chivukula, Assemblywoman Joan Quigley is pushing legislation that would allow for online voter registration:
The measure (A-4189) would create an online voter registration form, hosted on a secure site within the Department of State's Web site, that would allow residents to register to vote, change their voting address after a move or change their name in the voter file, all from a computer. Before registering or making a change, an individual's identity would be confirmed utilizing the digital signature found on the state's new digital driver's licenses.
Here is the video press release on the bill the Assembly Majority office put out:
Quigley makes the argument that of all the things we can do online from the comfort of home, we can't register to vote because NJ is "stubbornly rooted in the past." She says making it easier to register may be what we need to get more people to get out and vote. I personally think you need to give people something to vote for once you get them to register too, but that's a separate issue.The legislation has not been assigned to a committee as of yet and there is also no Senate counterpart yet from what I see. What do you think of the idea of utilizing online voter registration?
The deadline for registering to vote is fast approaching this Tuesday. This is pretty cool, the Corzine campaign put out a picture of a 75 year young Cape May resident registering to vote for the first time:
Good for them. There's no time like the present to start participating in the process of choosing your leaders. People that aren't sure if they are registered can check at NJvotefromhome.com and if they are, it lets them apply to vote by mail. If you're already registered, will you be voting by mail or do you still prefer to go vote on election day?
According to figures compiled by the Secretary of State's Office, more than 3.65 million people cast ballots in the Garden State.
That broke a record set in 2004 when 3.63 million voted in the race between John Kerry and George W. Bush.
From the Division of Elections, McCain's highest vote total from a county was Bergen with 174,526 votes. Obama's best county was Essex with 215,373 votes, though he also pulled another 208,410 from Bergen. Despite the turnout numbers, we didn't set all the voting records:
But Tuesday's results were far short of a record in terms of percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots. About 67 percent of registered New Jersey voters cast ballots, according to preliminary calculations; when provisional and other ballots are counted, the figure could reach 70 percent.
The record was 91 percent, set in 1960, according to the Secretary of State's Office. On several other occasions, turnout percentage was in the mid- to high 80s.
I can't even imagine 91% voter participation. Still, those are some pretty impressive turnout numbers. We'll have to look for the demographic breakdowns to learn more about the make up of the voters.
The following information is required Street Address, Street Name, City and County or Street Address, Street Name and Zip Code.
If an exact match is found in our records, you will be provided with your Polling Place, Voting Area District and the County Election Official information.
The polls are open from 6am until 8pm. Be patient as you may experience heavy traffic at some locations. If you've already voted absentee, you don't have to worry about any of this. Either way, happy voting!
If you needed any other reason beyond long lines, frustrated voters and reducing confusion in this blowout election, here's yet another reason to VOTE BY MAIL!
Some 10,000 voting machines throughout New Jersey could be hacked into in less than 10 minutes to manipulate vote tallies, which critics say puts the integrity of elections in New Jersey into question, according to a once-suppressed report by a Princeton University computer scientist released to the public Friday.
Is one of these machines in your polling place? For use with your district? Could you protect yourself by voting through the US Mail instead of using one of these machines?
Today is the last day for people to register to vote. New registrants need to have their ballot in to the County Board of Elections by 9 p.m. tonight.
As we've noted a few times on this site, there are going to be long lines and problems at the polls. You can save yourself some hassle and reduce those lines for others by voting absentee prior to the election.
To vote absentee you must apply with the County Clerk in your County. Here's a list.
You can apply by mail if you do so by October 28th. I think that means the application has to arrive by the 28th, but I am not sure. To be safe, send yours in today.
Should you miss this deadline you can still get an absentee ballot if you show up in the County Clerk's Office before 3 p.m. on Monday November 3rd. Again, here's a list of County Clerks in NJ.
You don't have to be absent to vote absentee. In fact, you can vote absentee and then spend your day standing 100 feet away from your polling place waving Obama/Biden placards if you want.
Voting absentee is simply a way to remove one person from the long lines, reducing the potential for problems and the likelihood that someone will decide the lines are too long and just go back to work without voting.
More than a year ago, I stepped forward to say that I though John Edwards was the best man to become the next President of the United States. I admired his ability to remember his roots without making a huge issue of it. And I fervently believe that his agenda of social and economic justice is the all-encompassing issue that will define America for the next generation. Either we will return the feet of our nation to righteousness, liberty, and true opportunity or we will degenerate into a de facto aristocracy where one part of our population never knows want and the other knows nothing else.
Edwards, of course, is no longer in the running. Our choices have been narrowed by the economics of electoral politics to Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama. Not long ago I would have viewed either as being equally desirable. I would have promised to work as hard for either one after the nomination process drew to a close. While I find Obama's rhetoric to be inspiring, I was nagged by several reservations. Chief among them was the horrible sinking feeling in my gut that America simply will not elect a black man.
Today, I laughed as I cast my ballot for the whole Real Bergen Dems slate in Column 1 and then picked the top three spots in Column 2 - for Weinberg, Huttle and Johnson.
I gave old Bergen County politics the 1, 2.
Our Column one looked solid - formidable even next to Boss Joe's Column 2.
I thoroughly enjoyed the irony of having our team on Column 1, it was particularly sweet since last year, Shama Haider and all of us incumbents on the County Committee in Tenafly were shooed over to Column 4. Now Boss Joe knows how it feels to get kicked to the curb.
He thought he owned Column 1. It was never his. It was OURS - the Bergen County Democrats -the ones he tried to punish for .. gasp... actually exercising our Special Election votes for Loretta Weinberg. State Senator Loretta Weinberg, who helped let our voters know last year where to find us on the ballot and defended our candidates this year when Boss Joe tried to get our slate disbanded.
Lets see how this all turns out - I feel like I am reading a page-turner and I only have a few more pages to go.........
Well, it's getting down to the wire. Primary Day. Tuesday. The day the status quo politicians wish everyone would stay home and let the party bosses pick your candidates for you. Don't give away your power to shape your party. Vote on Primary Day.
Even if there is no Presidential race - Don't stay home.
Even if there is no Gubernatorial race - Don't stay home.
Even if there is no Senate Race - Don't stay home.
Even if there is no Congressional race - Don't stay home.
Even if there is no contested State House race - Don't stay home.
Even if there is no contested County election - Don't stay home.
Even if there does not appear to be a contested local election - Don't stay home.
Even if you think your candidate is safe - Don't stay home.
Even if you think your vote doesn't matter - Don't stay home.
Even if you think you can't win a real Boss battle - Don't stay home.
Even if you are afraid they won't count your vote - Don't stay home.
Even if you are afraid they will turn you away - Don't stay home.
Even if you think they will intimidate you - Don't stay home. You can call and report it.
Even if you don't have a way to get there - Don't stay home. You can call and get a ride there.
Even if they have to give you a provisional ballot - Don't stay home. Provisional Ballots count too.
Even if you have to work - Don't just go home. The polls are open early and late.
If you don't know who the candidates are - Find out. But whatever you do, on Primary day - Don't Stay Home.
Unless of course, you have filled out and sent in your absentee ballot.
But otherwise - DON'T STAY HOME this Tuesday. Please.
It appears sanity won out. This time. We arrived early to pass out homemade posters to our fellow CC members, and we stood in the cold till our feet and hands froze, then we went in and voted NO on the bylaws and then went back outside to implore our fellow committee members to Vote NO, and asked them not to dilute our votes.
We chanted "Say NO to Joe" and gave detailed interviews to the press who, thankfully were present and trying to get exit interviews with the folks coming out of the building.
Inside, it was the first time I saw the Chairman not smiling broadly at an election. His attorney Dennis Oury stepped outside later only to try to shoo us CC members away from the door with the excuse that in another hour some children would be leaving the school to be picked up by their parents.
When the children finally left the building at 6 they seemed thoroughly thrilled by the whole affair and asked lots of questions about what was going on. I told them we were all Democrats and that they were witnessing democracy. One little girl of 11 told me that Hillary is her hero. Some of them asked if they could hold up our signs for us. Michael Wildes poked his head out the door, sensing a photo op, then quickly ducked back inside when he saw what our signs said. It was rather funny.....
We didn't need too many protesters there, the CC members themselves wound up taking up signs after voting and standing on the steps to plead with those entering to Vote NO. We had big stickers that simply said NO on them. Although the sign holding went on outside in the cold, many CC members proudly wore their NO stickers into the voting room.
Apparently Ferriero's friends needed to do the kind of arm-twisting the Republican Congress used to do when they would hold a vote open for hours while pressuring the last few fence sitters that it would in their best interest to vote with the party.
The next bylaws vote will probably try to change the notice to about an hour, because giving us a week was clearly enough time to rally the grassroots.
So, thank you for helping us spread the word. An informed electorate is the only way to go.
(UPDATE: My absentee ballot arrived in the mail yesterday. The instructions are very clear, and the ballot is actually easier to follow than the one in the voting machine. If you're registered to vote this November - the deadline to register is this coming Tuesday, 10/17) - you should seriously consider voting absentee. - promoted by noweeman)
UPDATE #2: If you need it, the NJ Elections Home Page's "NJ Voter Bulletin Board" provides a full list of all the 2006 deadlines for registrations, absentee ballot applications, voting, etc.
I love voting. I love walking into the polling place, greeting the poll workers, signing the book, walking into the booth, and casting my ballot. But, this year, not to be outdone by a certain former governor, I'm embarking on my own journey of self-discovery - I'm voting absentee.
I was intimidated at first, but it actually seems quite easy! All you have to do is print this out (it's also available en espanol), fill it out, and mail it to your County Clerk at least 7 days before the election (that means mail by October 30th this year to be safe). Your ballot will then be mailed directly to you with instructions.
Don't trust the mail? That's okay too! You can bring your application in person to the County Clerk any time from right this moment until 3:00 p.m. the day before the election.
I'm literally filling out my application today. I'll keep you posted on how it goes, but in the meantime, join me!
In New Jersey, ANY voter can vote by absentee ballot for ANY election. Unlike the old days, YOU DO NOT NEED A REASON to vote by absentee ballot. (Though on the flip - I'll give you some great reasons for doing it!)
(GO VOTE NOW!
Go Linda!
go team! - promoted by jay lassiter)
Senator John Edwards' PAC, One America, is holding a vote right now at their website to select two candidates from the DCCC's Red to Blue list for the Senator to headline a fundraiser for.
Of course, Linda Stender is on that list, and BlueJersey should go out in force to support the only NJ candidate on that list.
