Drop Boxes locations in Local Talk area
By Walter Elliott
MAPLEWOOD – Registered voters in the “Local Talk News” area are taking advantage of early voting, based on observations at several Essex County-deployed drop boxes since Sept. 21.
“Local Talk” was walking here along 1618 Springfield Ave., the Maplewood Police and Municipal Court Building around 9 a.m. that Monday when another pedestrian walked up to the drop box, deposited her ballot and walked on.
“Local Talk” has since seen several people walk up and deposit their “Vote By Mail” ballots at the Hilton neighborhood location.
It is not just Maplewoodians exercising their right to vote in the Nov. 3 General Election early – as seen in South Orange and East Orange.
The “Local Talk” delivery crew saw a man walk up to South Orange’s drop box – under the village’s railroad station gazebo on Sloan Street – and dropped in his ballot the morning of Oct. 1.
There was a line of three cars before East Orange’s drop box, before City Hall at 44 City Hall Plaza, just past lunch hour that Thursday. The lead driver was seen getting out to make his deposit.
The drop box part of how county and state and state officials are handling the first socially-distant General Election in U.S. history seems to be working well.
Most of the personnel and resources to conduct this election, from the distribution of VBM Ballots to the siting of a limited number of voting machine polling stations, should be in place by now.
The Essex County Board of Elections and County Clerk-Elections Division began mailing out the VBMBs through the United States Postal Service, since late September, with an “all-delivered” goal of Oct. 5.
Your own VBMB delivery, to paraphrase those car ad mileage disclaimers, may vary.
Some West Orange voters’ ballots were delayed when its bundle of mail was somehow dumped behind a North Arlington shopping center. (See “Town Watch” item on Page 6.)
A resident of Newark’s North Ward Woodside section received his ballot Oct. 2 — but with the printed name of the tenant who moved out some two years ago.
The number of limited traditional physical polling stations, as of presstime, remain less clear.
Essex County’s election board will continue to have a physical polling station at its Hall of Records, 465 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Newark 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Nov. 3 as it had been for the July 7 party primaries and May’s combined municipal-board of education election days. (The New Jersey Department of State requires each county to have one polling station open for those who are unable to vote by mail or by drop box.)
The board also took up the Prudential Center’s offer to make it a “super polling site” for Nov. 3. The site, at 25 Lafayette St., combines seven Central Ward voting districts: 14, 25, 29, 30, 40, 41 and 49.
Where other polling stations are beyond those two Newark sites, however, remains cloudy as of presstime.
The board of elections had furnished the N.J. Department of State its list of polling stations. It was among five counties who had not done so as late as Sept. 16.
What the county board furnished to the State Department, and what the department had posted on www.nj.gov/state/elections page, however, appears mostly unchanged from the 2019 General Election.
“Local Talk,” except for the Prudential Center replacing previous Central Ward station(s), counted the same 120 polling sites among its 12 towns. It is as if the emphasis on Coronavirus-curbing minimal contact was never stressed.
All of Orange’s even polling stations, for example, are on the state’s website page. It includes a North Ward site at the Washington Dodd Apartments, 336 Carroll St., which replaces stations at the 340 Thomas Blvd. Senior Center and the traditional but under reconstruction Cleveland Street Elementary School.
One of the city’s Democratic Party district leaders, on his Facebook page Oct. 2, posted a list of five Nov. 3 polling stations: Washington Dodd Apts., St. Matthews AME Church, the Orange Board of Education Headquarters at 451 Lincoln Ave, the Orange Preparatory Academy lobby and the Heywood Avenue School.
Not on the list are the Orange Early Education Center (formerly a Pitney-Bowes adding machine office) at 397 Park Ave., and the Elks Lodge at 475 Main St.
“Local Talk” advises prospective traditional voters to either contact the county board of elections to find their local or nearest polling station – or go to the one at the Hall of Records.
The drop boxes, by contrast, are found at each of Essex County’s 22 municipalities. Newark and West Orange each has two drop boxes. The boxes are open “24/7” until 8 p.m. Nov. 3 and are emptied daily.
“Local Talk” has found all of its local drop box locations handicapped accessible – with one exception.
The five steps to the drop box at the Irvington Public Safety Building’s Police Department front porch may be five too many for those who have difficulty with stairs. Vehicular access to 1 Bilal D. Beasley Civic Square, pending completion of its “Black Lives Matter” street mural, may have however eased by when you read this.
Those who vote by mail, like those who use the drop boxes, must have them postmarked on or before Nov. 3. While the USPS has a seven-day grace period, courtesy of Gov. Phil Murphy’s recent executive order, getting the ballots into the Hall of Records will not matter if the ballots are postmarked late.
County Clerk Chris Durkin’s Election Division materials stress the importance of mailing those VBMBs at least seven days ahead of Nov. 3, or Oct. 28.
One may call the local post office or branch to find out how late their postal clerk counters will be open Nov. 3. (Note: Bloomfield’s branch at 145 Grove St., serving its Ampere and Halcyon Park neighborhoods, may not reopen from its two-month renovation in time for the General Election.)
One could also deliver the completed VBMB during business hours at the Board of Elections Office in the Hall of Records.
All of the above will mean nothing, however, if one is not registered to vote.
Those who want to vote but are unregistered must fill out an application form between now and the close of business Oct. 13 – 21 days before the General Election. (Government offices will be closed Oct. 12 to observe the federal bank holiday.)
Those who have any registration questions or issues are to call the elections board, post haste, at (973) 621-5061.
Some questions asked of the County Clerk’s Office, like the one about the Woodside resident with the VBMB addressed to past tenant, may also be fielded to the elections board. A clerk’s office employee told the Woodsider to “destroy any ballot not addressed to him” and to check his registration with the elections board.
One may want to call his or her municipal clerk’s office to see if they will have any post-4:30 p.m. Tuesday hours to accept registration applications. Several clerks offices are to be open until 8 p.m.
Oct. 17 is the last date for voters to ask for a VBMB by mail. One can thereafter make an in-person request at the Hall of Records until 4:30 p.m. Nov. 2.
Anyone with problems getting a registration or voting matter resolved may call the N.J. Department of State 1 (877) 658-6837 NJVoter line.
NOV. 3 GENERAL ELECTION: BALLOT LOCAL TALK
DROP BOX LOCATIONS
NOTE: Any Nov. 3 Election Day Polling Locations – beyond Newark’s Essex County Hall of Records, 465 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd., and the Prudential Center, 25 Lafayette Ave. – are To Be Announced. Consult www.nj.gov/state/elections/vote-polling-location.shtml for town and district.
NEWARK
· Newark City Hall Green Street Side of 920 Broad St./Gibson Blvd.
· County Hall of Records, 465 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
IRVINGTON
· Police Department Portico, Public Safety Building, 1 Bilal D. Beasley Civic Square
EAST ORANGE
· City Hall, 44 City Hall Plaza.
ORANGE
· Freddie Polhill Law and Justice Complex, 29 Park St.
WEST ORANGE
· Essex County South Mountain Recreation Complex Parking Deck, 560 Northfield Ave.
· Municipal Building, 66 Main St.
SOUTH ORANGE
· Sloan Street Gazebo, Across from SOFD Firehouse, 50 Sloan St.
MAPLEWOOD
· Police and Court Building, 1618 Springfield Ave.
MONTCLAIR
· Municipal Building, 205 Claremont Ave.
BLOOMFIELD
· BFD Firehouse No. 3, 124 E. Passaic Ave.
GLEN RIDGE
· Municipal Building, 825 Bloomfield Ave.
BELLEVILLE
· Police Headquarters Side of Mun. Bldg., 152 Washington Ave.
NUTLEY
· Harry W. Chenoweth Municipal Building, 1 Kennedy Dr.
