Republicans Hope Low Voter Turnout Favors Them

With only hours left this Election Day, Republicans are hoping that low voter turnout in Woodbridge might be good news for their candidates.

Sue Boros, a Republican candidate for one of the at-large council seats on the ballot, was spending the last few hours before the polls close trying to get the vote out.

"I think we have a good shot, but it won't have anything to do with the behavior [of the Democrats]," Boros said. She had spent the last few days picking up the remains of her campaign signs around town she said had been torn up.

"We put signs out two and three times, in legitimate places, and all that's left are the stakes. They try to make it impossible for an outsider to get any name recognition," Boros said in disgust.

"McCormac is pitting his $85,000 war chest to my $2,000 one. That's pretty sad," she said. "No such thing as fair play in Woodbridge."

At 4 pm, only 11 percent of the registered voters had turned out in one Avenel polling place, said Republican Chairman John Vtaric.

"It's a very low turnout. Historically, that favors the minority party," he said. "We've got our fingers crossed."

The township Democrats were playing it close to the vest. None of the Woodbridge candidates could be reached for this story.

State Senate candidate Paul Lund's campaign manager had an interesting experience when he went to vote in Port Reading.

The clerks at Jason Schimmenti's polling place had a bit of difficulty finding his name in the voting book. "They eventually did," said Lund. 

But within seconds of the mix up, a Democratic challenger at the polling place stepped forward to say that Schimmenti had no legal right to vote and that he was in the wrong district.

Schimmenti has lived in the same house in Port Reading his entire life and hasn't moved, Lund said. Schimmenti's name was eventually found and he was allowed to vote.

Regardless of what the election day results are, Lund said that he thinks the level of professionalism evinced in the county and local Republican campaigns have been "a turning point for our organization."

"So many of our volunteers are Democrats who are disenchanted with the way things are turning out. They want change. They aren't impressed with the leadership of their party," Lund said. "That says a lot, and no matter what happens, it's not going to end here."