Atlantic Highlands – “In 11 years as borough clerk, I have never seen anything like this in a primary,” said Borough Clerk Dwayne Harris, in re-counting for The Two River Times the number of strange and unusual things that occurred during Tuesday’s primary.
That 65 percent of the electorate voted in the Republican primary is unheard of in the history of the borough, Harris said, noting that, without a local contest, only a minimal percentage of Democrats turned out. The GOP percentage includes a number of unaffiliated voters who declared themselves as Republicans at the polls Tuesday. Statewide, with 5.4 million registered voters, only 225,000 went to the polls Tuesday, representing a new low for the state of slightly more than 5 per cent.
Electrical power was cut off in the first and fourth districts, the east side of the borough including the Yacht Harbor, early in the day when a contractor working on the installation of new Victorian style lights at the Harbor hit a power line. Since voting machines have built in generators that keep the machines operating flawlessly for eight hours, and the borough was able to supplement them long before that, no voting machines were compromised by the disruption, Harris said, and power was restored later in the day.
In the second and third districts on the west side of the borough, where voters cast ballots in the Firemen’s Field House, the borough had already installed a generator for lights and the voting machines, since necessary repairs had not been completed on the building. Harris had taken precautions and made necessary adjustments, including a generator, to ensure no problems with voting there.
Harris said that also in the third district, some voters had complained about actions by the GOP Chairman Jane Frotton, who was also a party challenger in all four districts during the election. He declined to say specifically what the complaints were; however, other reports indicate the complaint focused on Frotton taking photographs on her cell phone at the polling place. Harris said that Frotton, later on, was in the 4th District when she received a phone call from the Election Board saying her sponsor had requested she turn in her credentials to serve as a challenger for the day. Frotton concurred and did not challenge throughout the day.
“It was certainly a different kind of day,” Harris concluded.
– By Muriel J. Smith
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