45,145 Voters Cast Early Ballots Across Essex County — Nearly 8 Percent of Everyone Registered
West Orange's Berson Family Center drew the most early voters in the county at 10,823; Newark's four sites drew 8,291 between them, and the Clerk's Office reported no major issues at any of the 11 locations.
Essex County's nine days of in-person early voting closed Sunday with 45,145 ballots cast — nearly 8 percent of the county's 577,256 registered voters — according to figures from the Essex County Clerk's Office reported Monday by Montclair Local. The county reported no major issues at any of its 11 early voting locations, and County Clerk Christopher J. Durkin said after the polls closed that early voting had run smoothly.
The busiest site in the county was not in Newark. West Orange's Berson Family Center drew 10,823 early voters, followed by the Verona Community Center at 6,196, Bloomfield's Watsessing Park Community Center at 4,931, East Orange City Hall at 4,653 and Montclair's Wally Choice Community Center at 4,007. Newark's four sites — the Cherry Blossom Center in Branch Brook Park (3,664), the Weequahic Park Community Center (1,735), the Essex County Parking Garage (1,515) and the West Side Park Community Center (1,228) — drew 8,291 voters between them. Irvington's Municipal Building drew 3,544 and Fairfield's Community Center 2,849, and the eleven site totals add up to the county's 45,145.
At Watsessing Park on Sunday, the final afternoon looked orderly: a short, steadily moving line just after 4 p.m., a full parking lot, and a poll worker reporting no issues with the machines or the voting all day. One wrinkle did surface over the weekend — Montclair's mayor reminded voters to fill out both sides of the double-sided ballot to reach the municipal candidates, after reports that not everyone realized the ballot had a second side and the sample ballot had not made that clear.
Attention now turns to Tuesday. Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens II said Friday, at an unrelated event in Verona, that law enforcement would not be at polling locations or within 100 feet of an election site under the Attorney General's guidelines, and that the officials running the elections are in charge at polling places. Polls are open Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and voters who still hold a vote-by-mail ballot can return it to a secure drop box or the Board of Elections by 8 p.m.
