While focusing on the negative has become the norm in today’s climate, particularly during an election, I’m compelled to recognize a job well done by our election officials in Monmouth County. Most people do not realize the level of planning, strategic decision-making, organization and hours of labor that go into executing the complex election process – especially in a presidential election year when hundreds of thousands of voters in Monmouth County are heading to the polls to cast their votes.
We’ve seen the chaos that ensues when elections are not efficient. In California, hundreds of thousands of ballots are still being counted. And in Pennsylvania, misdated and unsigned mail-in ballots threatened to change the outcome of a U.S. Senate race. In Monmouth County this year, County Clerk Christine Hanlon, a Republican, and Superintendent of Elections Chris Siciliano, a Democrat, and the Board of Elections led by Chairwoman Eileen Kean, deserve a great deal of credit for facilitating a smooth election process.
Monmouth County has seen the state’s highest turnout for in-person early voting in general elections since the state required it in 2021, and this year was no exception. Approximately 130,000 voters went to the polls prior to Election Day, and over 56,000 voted by mail. Clerk Hanlon and our election officials made sound, strategic decisions to advertise early voting options and educate voters about the process so voters would not face the tremendous lines and wait times at the polls that voters in other counties ultimately had to endure on Election Day. Focused investments for a variety of outreach campaigns to educate voters about their early voting options directly resulted in an organized Election Day.
When the first day of early voting witnessed a surge at the polls, our Monmouth election officials sprang into action, quickly adding more machines and poll workers to alleviate the congestion at the early voting locations. Consistent communication via social media and the press advising voters of important information they needed to know made the experience so much better for Monmouth County voters. Clerk Hanlon’s enhanced vote-by-mail ballot tracking system, the only one in the state that provides email and text notifications to voters, put mail-in ballot voters at ease knowing that their ballots safely arrived at the County Board of Elections for counting. I would be remiss if I also did not mention the expedited election results we have come to take for granted in Monmouth, which is not the case throughout the country or even across New Jersey. Our Board of Elections, the office that counts paper mail-in and provisional ballots, worked countless hours to quickly and efficiently verify and count over 80,000 paper ballots. The availability of these results has been made easily accessible due to strategic initiatives by Clerk Hanlon, who spearheaded the launch of the MonmouthCountyVotes.com website and free mobile app, Monmouth County Votes.
Monmouth’s election officials and employees were on the job many nights and weekends to ensure that all voters had access to all of the different voting options and they deserve our thanks. It is my pleasure to give credit where credit is due and congratulate Clerk Hanlon and Monmouth’s elections officials for a job well done.
Joseph M. Kyrillos served in the
New Jersey General Assembly from 1988-1992
and the New Jersey Senate from 1992-2018
The article originally appeared in the December 5 – 11, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
