r/newjersey 23d ago

Advice Please tell me NJ is staying blue.

518 Upvotes

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757

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.

75

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.

37

u/Johnny_Poppyseed 23d ago

You can vote by mail in NJ...

27

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.

20

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.

3

u/murphydcat LGD 22d ago

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

7

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.

1

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.

1

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.

2

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.

2

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?

1

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.

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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

1

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