We are just a few weeks from Election Day, on Tuesday, November 7, and campaigns are beginning to accelerate, from the local level on up the chain. This means that voters are learning more about the candidates for whom they are tasked with casting a vote. It stands to reason that the more information citizens have prior to selecting their candidate, the more informed that selection should be.
Here in Livingston, for example, we have one local race this year, for a seat on the school district’s Board of Education. As we have progressed through this election season, the two candidates – Harsh Raju and Fang Gong – have participated in a debate, submitted weekly responses to questions in this newspaper, and been out and about speaking to residents in town. Together, the community, surely, collectively knows more about these two individuals than they did just one month earlier.
And yet, many informed voters will not have the opportunity to apply this newly gathered knowledge, because so many of them have sent in their vote-by-mail ballots weeks ago.
Let us be clear: we emphatically support voting by mail. It is a secure process that served a crucial purpose during the height of the COVID pandemic, and continues to be a convenient way for citizens to participate in our democracy. We are certain that more individuals vote each year because the “barrier to entry” no longer necessitates going to a polling station during specific hours of a single day and waiting in a line. The more eligible people who take advantage of their right to vote, the better we are as a country, state, and town.
However, we strongly believe that the date that citizens receive their vote-by-mail ballots is far too early for them to make the most informed possible decision on all of the candidates. In Livingston, for example, those voting before they watched the League of Women Voters’ Candidates Nights, or read all of the Board of Education candidates’ responses in the Tribune, may have done so without crucial information that could have affected their decisions. Perhaps learning more about them would have emboldened the choice that had already been made, but there is certainly also a chance that learning more about a particular candidate might have swayed some votes.
Could people hold onto their ballots until a week or two before election day before sending them in? Of course. The deadline for mail-in ballots to be accepted in New Jersey is by 8 p.m. on Election Day for those mailed through a secure ballot drop box (one is located outside of Town Hall in Livingston) or delivered in person to the county Board of Elections office (465 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Newark). For regular mail, they must be postmarked before 8 p.m. on Election Day and be received by the county’s Board of Elections no later than six days after Election Day. Yet, we understand that while all of those votes surely count the same, people may want to ensure that their votes are taken as part of the unofficial tally come election night. To do this, many voters mail in their ballots not long after they are received, which, for most people, happened sometime in September, nearly two months prior to Election Day.
Surely, there are some logistical reasons for why these ballots are mailed out so early. We are all familiar with the trials and tribulations of the U.S. Postal Service in the past decade. Getting ballots too soon is certainly preferable to receiving them too late or not at all. And if there are any mistakes, getting them out early also gives citizens time to sort it out. But there has to be some sort of compromise here.
Even if we wait until a month prior to election day to send out the ballots, that should still provide citizens plenty of time to vote and sort out any issues, while giving the candidates more time to make their case and share crucial information with the voting public. It should be a goal of every voter to want to cast their ballots with as much knowledge about the candidates, and the relevant issues, as possible. The state of New Jersey should support this by waiting a little longer to start the voting process. While it is far too late to make any changes during this election cycle, we hope to see adjustments made for future years.
In the meantime, as we quickly approach this year’s election, we hope you will continue to follow along in the Tribune to hear more from our local candidates. Including this edition, there are three issues left before Election Day, and each will feature new statements from both Gong and Raju. And for any specific queries of either candidate, both have made their email addresses readily available; residents should feel free to contact them directly. There is no need to head into the voting booth (or mail a ballot) with any unanswered questions.
