UNION COUNTY, NJ — If you filled out a paper ballot at a polling place in Union County, your vote will be counted — starting Monday, the administrator of the Board of Elections said.
Elections workers will begin counting the paper ballots, also called provisional ballots, cast at polling places beginning Monday — 13 days after election day — at which time they will be anticipated to have completed counting mail-in ballots, Nicole DiRado, administrator of the Union County Board of Elections, said Friday. Due to COVID-19, the election was conducted almost entirely by mail.
As for local races that hang in the balance pending the Nov. 20 deadline for county clerks to certify election results?
“I have been telling everybody from day one: nobody should expect any meaningful results until this election is certified. There are too many variables right now to call any race,” DiRado said.
Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi said that while the board of elections is working diligently, Union County is among the last in the state to have votes fully tallied.
“This is a different type of election, and I don’t think the board is familiar or has enough experience in this,” Rajoppi said. “It’s taking longer. In fact, Union and Morris counties, we’re the last ones to [tally] our votes at this point.”
She said that thousands of ballots that would have otherwise been read by a machine had to be hand-counted because of imperfections that the machines could not read. The reasons for this have varied from people circling candidates names instead of filling in ovals to filling in ovals but extending the mark outside of the lines, Rajoppi said.
As of Friday evening, the Union County Board of Elections had tallied 233,223 ballots out of 372,854 registered voters, yielding 62.55% voter turnout across Union County’s 21 municipalities, according to the unofficial results posted by the Union County Clerk’s Office.
The turnout shown in the unofficial results, however, varied by municipality and is anticipated to rise as more ballots are tallied.
DiRado’s message to the public: “Stay tuned.”
The following chart details turnout by town in Union County including ballots counted as of Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. Percentages are anticipated to rise as more votes get counted.
| Town | Registered Voters | Vote By Mail/Machine Votes | Percent Turnout |
| Berkeley Heights | 10,722 | 8,130 | 75.83% |
| Clark | 12,449 | 9,316 | 74.83% |
| Cranford | 19,133 | 14,581 | 76.21% |
| Elizabeth | 65,028 | 28,436 | 43.73% |
| Fanwood | 6,266 | 4,701 | 75.02% |
| Garwood | 3,395 | 2,460 | 72.46% |
| Hillside | 15,669 | 8,795 | 56.13% |
| Kenilworth | 6,036 | 4,126 | 68.36% |
| Linden | 28,722 | 16,025 | 55.79% |
| Mountainside | 5,888 | 4,384 | 74.46% |
| New Providence | 10,016 | 7,477 | 74.65% |
| Plainfield | 25,980 | 13,892 | 53.47% |
| Rahway | 20,694 | 12,753 | 61.63% |
| Roselle | 15,328 | 8,482 | 55.34% |
| Roselle Park | 9,547 | 6,097 | 63.86% |
| Scotch Plains | 19,607 | 14,688 | 74.91% |
| Springfield | 13,224 | 9,580 | 72.44% |
| Summit | 17,095 | 12,032 | 70.38% |
| Union Twp. | 41,946 | 27,665 | 65.95% |
| Westfield | 24,964 | 18,781 | 75.23% |
| Winfield | 1,145 | 821 | 71.70% |
| Total | Total | ||
| Union County (All Towns) | 372,854 | 233,222 | 62.55% |
Email Matt Kadosh at mkadosh@tapinto.net | Twitter: @MattKadosh
