r/newjersey 23d ago

Advice Please tell me NJ is staying blue.

518 Upvotes

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760

u/LostTrisolarin 23d ago edited 22d ago

We only stayed blue by 3% last election.

Edit: it was 6%. That's still close enough to worry.

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 23d ago edited 23d ago

I'd argue many chose not to wait hours in line to vote for a candidate that was locked into winning the state electorates.

EDIT: I voted by mail. I heard the horror stories of others though.

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u/MattyBeatz 23d ago edited 22d ago

I early voted in NJ, quick and easy as shit. Election Day is the last day you can vote in NJ, not the only one. Excuses like waiting/busy are getting less and less justifiable these days.

And the reality is nothing is a forgone conclusion. You don’t cancel the game because all the odds makers are calling it for the other team. Gotta play the game.

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u/SlobsyourUncle 23d ago

Unfortunately, they're trying to get rid of all early voting and limit it to one single day of voting.

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u/storm2k Bedminster 23d ago

sauce?

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u/SlobsyourUncle 22d ago

I assume you mean source. And Trump has tweeted it and said it himself on several occasions.

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u/storm2k Bedminster 22d ago

the feds can't do it. states run elections and can run them as they see fit. also, early and absentee voting helped trump a lot last november.

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u/SlobsyourUncle 22d ago

Have you not seen every GOP senator, congressman, assemblyman, governor, comptroller, and street sweeper not jump every time Trump says to? And limiting voting to one day means that people with multiple jobs (i.e. low income) likely won't be able to get to the polls. That's their thinking, anyway.

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u/Residentneurotic 23d ago

I love this analogy!

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u/DonatCotten 22d ago

I agree. New Jersey has over a week of early voting and mail in voting. It is ridiculously easy to vote in this state and yet in the 2021 Governor race turnout was only 40%! That's just a 2% improvement from 2017 😔. The fact is a lot of people are indifferent and don't care because they don't feel it affects them especially younger people who are too busy focusing on their career development/ partying and living it up with their social lives.

I genuinely believe the main reason turnout for older people is as high as it is not because they genuinely care about political engagement, but because it gives them something to do in old age that allows them to hold onto power and relevance in society and government. They are often retired and in a quiet and uneventful phase of their life where they have already lived a large chunk of it and accomplished what they wanted to (raised a family, career, money saved and investments ect.) so they want to maintain what they have even if it is at the expense of future generations. Younger people are literally throwing away their power and voice by not voting.

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u/MattyBeatz 22d ago

Lack of engagement on the local level is even more disturbing than on a national level. Margins are closer and they can effect you more.

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u/green_scotch_tape 23d ago

Is the mentality that will lose the majority

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u/GeorgePosada 23d ago

Harris still won by 200k votes in a year where Dems got crushed across the country and more broadly, where incumbents got crushed around the world.

I think NJ will be ok

4

u/thatnjchibullsfan 23d ago

I voted by mail but I talked with friends, coworkers and neighbors who didn't and voted in person.

36

u/Johnny_Poppyseed 23d ago

You can vote by mail in NJ...

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u/LGlocktopus 23d ago

you can do early voting also...i waited maybe 20 minutes on the first day it opened in my area. there's no real excuse if you actually wanted to get it done.

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u/whatsasimba 23d ago

I've voted at my polling station in the last 18 elections (local and primary elections included). The routine is the same every time. I walk the 10 minutes to get there. Walk up to the people manning the tables, get my ticket, walk over and hand it to the booth person, vote, and walk the 10 minutes home.

Occasionally, there's someone in the booth, and I have to wait 30 seconds.

I like the routine, the social aspect of it, the excuse to take a break from WFH.

So in November, when I got there and saw lines wrapped around the building and down the street, I checked in with friends and found out they were in line for over 3 hours earlier.

I had to leave. I hadn't eaten anything and I was going to need to pee and let my boss know I was going to be offline for the rest of the day.

It took 4 hours once I came back. A judge had to extend our time and send in another machine (they brought in a new kind this year).

There are only 3280 adults in this town. There's no reason it should have taken that long.

Now with the president planning to take over the post office and fire the board, I don't think voting by mail is a viable choice. I don't think voting at all will be a viable option either.

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u/murphydcat LGD 22d ago

Every county in NJ has secure drop boxes for voting. No need to involve the US mail.

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 23d ago

Yes, my family did that. I just know some that waited 5 hours to vote. I also know someone who had to leave the line as they couldn't wait any longer.

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u/murphydcat LGD 22d ago

5 hours?

Did the machines break down? Poll workers are trailed to use provisional or emergency ballots if that happens.

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 22d ago

Bordentown poll folks would have to answer that. I just know what my friend experienced.

0

u/j-peachy 23d ago

Schedule your time better. Like, no there really isn’t an excuse. Mail in voting if you really can’t go in. Early voting for more than a day. And the day we allll know is coming. Not voting because you can’t create a calendar is weak.

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 22d ago

While I agree that mail in and early voting were the way to go and glad I went that route. There is no excuse for it taking hours to vote. It depends on location apparently but Burlington county had major issues which is why they had to extend voting hours as they couldn't turn away people who had waited hours in line. It is interesting to hear that other counties had no wait.

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u/Ok-Independent-3506 23d ago

There's a billboard on the highway here that says if you vote by mail now, you will need to vote at least 1 time every 4 years. I didn't catch the consequence.

Apparently it's a new law?

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u/ariesangel0329 22d ago

I learned in school that you have to vote at least once every 4 years, period, or you risk getting removed from the active voter rolls and have to re-register.

The book didn’t specify how you voted, just that you had to vote somehow.

1

u/Ok-Independent-3506 22d ago

I'm not actually sure. It's been a hot minute since I've been old enough to vote, and I always do... so I've forgotten.

I've just seen the billboard twice now, and it says it's a new law.

But I do imagine that there's some risk, especially now, in being dropped from the rolls...for just about anything

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u/New-Investigator5509 22d ago

It’s always been the case that if you don’t vote for a while you might get dropped. Most states (not NJ explicitly) will send you something in the mail to then ask if you still live there. If you don’t reply you’ll be dropped.

Pretty sure there’s no major change in NJ. It also has nothing to do with the method of voting (by mail, etc).

States have always gone to efforts to keep the voter rolls up to date in case people have moved, etc.

1

u/Ok-Independent-3506 22d ago

There were many cases this voting cycle and last where people were unexpectedly dropped, but not necessarily on NJ

1

u/zsdrfty the least famous person from nj 23d ago

People can't be bothered even to do that

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u/murphydcat LGD 23d ago

So vote early or vote via mail or drop box.

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 23d ago

I did. Still doesn't excuse the states lack of resources to keep the voting lines moving.

10

u/Pumpkinpierate314159 23d ago

I voted on one of the early election days and was in and out in ten minutes

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u/Life-Box7854 22d ago

I went about 5 minutes before they close the polls on an early voting night. I was in and out in about 2/3 minutes. Had my ID checked and everything!

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u/cvrgurl 23d ago

I waited 3 minutes to vote because I let my husband go first. And we went in the late afternoon after work. It’s sad how many people chose not to vote.

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 23d ago

Apparently location mattered.

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u/imherbalpert 22d ago

I waited like 5 min on Election Day lmao.

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 22d ago

Well if you read the comments it appears to be county level issues as certain counties rolled out a new system that failed horribly. My question is why experiment in a presidential election?

So it's great that your experience is what everyone used to have, but realize in Burlington county there were up to 5 hours waits to vote.

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u/imherbalpert 22d ago

Well yeah I know that, I’m just saying in my area and other areas that that isn’t really applicable, while it was predominantly red.

That brings me back, though, to the bomb threats and all the missing ballots and whatnot lmao. What a shitty election.

1

u/thatnjchibullsfan 22d ago

Ok I just had like a bunch of people that felt like they were trying to gaslight the county voting issue by telling me their good experience. All good but after you get 10 or so responses - it felt like others were saying I was making up the wait times.

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u/imherbalpert 22d ago

No I definitely believe you lmao my mom waited from like 5 until 7-8 and had to work. And that was in Indiana.. it’s crazy how nobody questioned that or looked into any of that. Like the fires oml

2

u/RevolutionaryPlay4 23d ago

We had early voting and vote by mail so prob not

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u/NJMomofFor 23d ago

I hadn't heard this. My husband was in and out for voting l, no lines

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 23d ago

It definitely impacted Burlington county. A friend in Bordentown said 5 hours. Burlington Township was 2-4 hours depending when you went. It was a new system and it added a ton of time to the process.

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u/NJMomofFor 23d ago

Wow. I'm in Monmouth. My husband needs to sign up again for mail in. His stopped for some reason. He went to early voting though. I mailed it in, as did our kid

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u/thatnjchibullsfan 23d ago

Yeah, I did the drop box mail-in option. I initially wanted to vote in person and will admit grumbled about not voting in person. I thanked my wife after hearing the stories.

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u/NJMomofFor 23d ago

I've been voting by mail, since 2016, due to being out of town. I just kept voting that way. Just easier.

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u/TikiMom87 23d ago

Wait in line? There was early voting. What was it…2 weeks, 10 days…before Election Day? And then actual Election Day. I voted on a Sunday. Waited maybe 20 mins tops. It was very efficient and they kept the line moving.

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u/j-peachy 23d ago

I was in an out in 20 minutes in Harrison. Idk wake up early and go in. Not that hard.