Unaffiliated and Dem voters are voting earlier than Republicans

By Art Gallagher

There have been over 6 million votes cast nationally in the general election so far, according to a report at TheHill.

Almost 4 million of those votes have been cast by voters unaffiliated with the Democrat or Republican Parties. 1.4 million ballots have been cast by Democrats and 653,000 by Republicans.

From my unscientific observations on social media, Republicans are not in a rush to vote. Many are shocked by the events of last week—President Trump’s COVID-19 and his performance in the first debate. Hard core Republicans in New Jersey resent that Governor Murphy will not allow them to vote on a machine. They don’t trust the post office or the drop boxes to get their ballots counted. Many are planning to vote on election day by either completing a provisional ballot at their polling place or delivering their paper ballot to a polling place or the Board of Elections office on election day as a form of protest.

Monmouth and Ocean County Republican Party leaders and candidates are worried about the early voting trends. Some are worried that there will be a coronavirus surge or natural disaster that will discourage Republican voters from casting their last minute ballots. Some are concerned that election day lines will have Republican voters give up and the chaos of counting late cast ballots will delay the results from being accurate and known for weeks. It is their job to consider every contingency and get out the vote.

The Gallagher’s cast their ballots at a secure drop box in Middletown this week. We did our research on the ballot questions and local candidates and made our decisions. We will verify that our ballots have been received.

We’ll find another way to express our anger at Murphy for upending the election for political rather than public health purposes. We concluded that waiting till election day to vote plays into Murphy’s demented scheme. Our best revenge, for now, is to make sure our votes count and to encourage like minded voters to get their ballots in early.

Posted: October 10th, 2020 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Elections, Monmouth County News, New Jersey, Opinion | Tags: Early voting, Monmouth County News, New Jersey, Opinion, Voting | 6 Comments »

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