EARLY POLLS: 1% Reporting, Bob Menendez Will Win New Jersey with 60%
As of 9:09pm, New Jersey is still struggling to keep up with electronic voters. Hit the refresh button or follow @dantebarry for the up-to-the-minute results as more precincts report. Scroll to the bottom for recent updates.
Today, the Great Super Tuesday, and almost ten days after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, the country will look to New Jersey to see who comes out to vote.
The office of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently announced that they will allow voting by email and fax for voters who were displaced by the hurricane, designating them as "overseas voters". Given the situation of power outages, floods, and displaced voters, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno said, "To help alleviate pressure on polling places, we encourage voters to either use electronic voting or the extended hours at county offices to cast their vote.”
Voters who decide to opt-in for electronic casting, must email or fax their ballot to their county clerk, who determines qualifications for a provisional ballot. Once 'approved' the clerk will electronically send you your ballot and a "waiver of secrecy" which will allow polling officials to print and confirm the ballot. Applications for electronic provisional ballots must be received by 5 p.m. and all ballots themselves must be submitted by 8 p.m.
It's quite simple, I just did it! If folks in New Jersey can find access to power to submit a few electronic correspondences. The question for today, however: will Hurricane Sandy be a setback for the New Jersey voter?
A new national poll shows that President Barack and Governor Mitt Romney are in a dead heat with 48 percent of voters. Two percent of voters were interested in a third-party candidate while another two percent remain undecided.
In this poll, Obama leads among women, young people under 35, and Latinos. Romney is head among men, independents, and whites. In 2008, New Jersey went blue and elected Barack Obama president.
What's to come of today's election? It could be a toss-up.
Be sure to research how you can vote before you head to a polling station or submit your electronic ballot!
UPDATE: 1:16PM Governor Christie ripped Governor Romney's campaign aides at a news conference this morning about Hurricane Sandy recovery.
He said, "All this other noise, I think, are coming from know-nothing, disgruntled Romney staffers who — you know — don’t like the fact that I said nice things about the president of the United States. Well, that’s too bad for them.”
But that's not stopping Governor Christine from ensuring that New Jersey voters are casting their ballots today. The state has taken every measure to make sure those folks displaced by the hurricane were able to vote, such as allowing "authorized messangers" to pick up a number of requested mail-in ballots.
Less than 100 polling stations in New Jersey are without power, outside the 800 stations available day ago. That's not stopping New Jersey voters:
In Little Ferry, N.J., 25-year-old construction worker, was the first voter to arrive, 13 minutes before polls opened. The storm claimed his apartment and car.
"It's important because it's our day," he said. "No matter what happens - hurricanes, tornados - it's our day to vote."
UPDATE: 4:55PM
What pollsters are saying right now about the presidential:
Karl Rove: "Without twelve toss up states (MN, NV, CO, IA, WI, MI, OH, PA, NH, VA, NC, AND FL), Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are tied at 191 each. I predict Mr. Romney will win FL (29), NC (15), VA (13), NH (4), OH (18), IA (6), CO (9) and Mr. Obama will get MN (10), NV (6), WI (10), MI (16), PA (20). This brings Mr. Romney to 285 Electoral College votes and Mr. Obama to 253. These are just my base predictions and I still think several of these states are too close to call. For example, while I put them in Mr. Obama's column, I still believe NV, WI, and PA are in play and very winnable for Mr. Romney. If crowds at his recent stops in these states are any indication of his supporters' enthusiasm, Mr. Romney will likely be able to claim victory in these states as well."
Nate Silver: "Among 12 national polls published on Monday, Mr. Obama led by an average of 1.6 percentage points. Perhaps more important is the trend in the surveys. On average, Mr. Obama gained 1.5 percentage points from the prior edition of the same polls, improving his standing in nine of the surveys while losing ground in just one...All of this leaves Mr. Romney drawing to an inside straight. ... [I]n poker, making an inside straight requires you to catch one of 4 cards out of 48 remaining in the deck, the chances of which are about 8 percent. Those are now about Mr. Romney’s chances of winning the Electoral College."
UPDATE: 4:57PM BREAKING NEWS: New Jersey extends online voting to FRIDAY due to polling problems; you would have had to apply by 5:00PM today to submit your application. Calling for voter infringement.
UPDATE: 5:16PM With problems facing New Jersey and Pennsylvania, are we finding problems at the polls that could cost this election?
UPDATE: 7:17PM New Jersey's decision to extend voting until Friday for displaced Hurricane Sandy voters is said to be due to an overwhelming number of applications for mail-in ballots and need more time to process. Allowing displaced voters to cast their ballots electronically while many still do not have power may not have been the best decision to execute on for this election. During Hurricane Sandy preparations, Governor Christie's office should have been more thoughtful on emergency voting alternatives, with power outages in consideration.
With Google's new tool: Politics & Elections, Romney has a 4+ lead over Obama, with 8-3 electoral votes respectively.
UPDATE: 8:21PM Despite electronic voting problems, Barack Obama claims New Jersey -- claiming 14 electoral votes.
UPDATE: 9:04PM U.S. Senate race
1% reporting
CANDIDATEVOTESPCT. Bob Menendez I 35,180 59.8% Joe Kyrillos 22,711 38.6%
From Huffington Post
PolicyMic will be covering the 2012 election from the state of New Jersey live. For live updates, bookmark and refresh this page.
