It’s Election Day – Did You Vote?

It’s Election Day and generally speaking like in most off-year elections there is not a ton of buzz around Ocean County but there are some exceptions.

All 80 New Jersey Assembly seats are up for election and the Democrats will likely hold on to their strong majority (54-26) although Republicans do hold all six seats that serve Ocean County.

In the 10^th district longtime Assemblyman David Wolfe is not seeing re-election and former Brick Councilman John Catalano is the running mate of incumbent Greg McGuckin and they rate the role of solid favorites as the county continues to be the “reddest” in the state.

There are two Freeholders seats up for grabs with GOP incumbents Ginny Haines and Jack Kelly being challenged by David Wright and Jean Czarkowski in what has been a low-key race. Same for the office of Sheriff with Mike Mastronardy seeking a third term against Gene Davis.

Probably the local race with the most interest is in Toms River where voters will elect a new mayor and three new council members.  Current Republican councilman Maurice “Mo” Hill is seeking to replace three-term mayor Tom Kelleher who did not seek re-election.

Hill is facing Democrat Jonathan Petro and both have three running mates looking to serve on the council. Also in Toms River there are six candidates seeking one term on the Board of Education with none of them having served previously.

Among other municipalities in Ocean County electing mayors are Beachwood and Berkeley while Brick has hotly contested races for both the Township Council and Board of Education.

Polls are open throughout the state until 8 p.m. and turnout is expected to be light.  Regardless of the outcome I would hope all the candidate do their best to make sure their support teams begin removing the hundreds if not thousands of “lawn signs” sprinkled across roadways and highways as early as tomorrow.