NJ Public Advocate: Every Vote Counts

Public Advocate issues report showing that dozens of local races were decided by less than 1 percent margin in the last two years

TRENTON – Local elections that are decided by a less than 1 percent margin are a relatively common occurrence in the Garden State and underscore the need for all eligible citizens to cast their votes every November, according to a report issued by the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate today.

Report on Close Elections in New Jersey and their Significance for the Behavior of Eligible Voters and Election officaials

View Close Elections Data (By County)

“Every vote really does count. Close elections are more common than many people think,” said Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen, who has made voting rights a priority during his tenure.  “With all of the emphasis on the presidential campaign, it is easy to forget that there are competitive local races throughout the state being decided on Nov. 4.”

The report issued by the Public Advocate surveyed media reports and local election data and identified 15 New Jersey elections in the last two years where just one vote would have changed the result, meaning that it would have resulted in a different winner or different public question outcome.

The report also identified 51 New Jersey elections in the last two years where the margin of victory was less than one percent, meaning that just a few additional votes for one candidate or one side of a public question would have changed the result.

 “While most people who follow civic affairs can point to a few elections with narrow margins of victory that received a great deal of media attention, this article illustrates that this phenomenon occurs more frequently, and more widely, than most voters believe,” the report states.

The frequency of close elections also reinforces the need for government election officials to improve their efforts to register voters and to ensure that voters can cast their ballots and that votes are counted accurately, all areas where the state of New Jersey has shown marked improvement in recent years, said Chen.

“Election administration practices have no room for error.  As we demonstrate here, when election officials fail to register just a few eligible voters, or make it impossible for even a small number of eligible people to vote, this conduct can change the result.  Likewise, there is no place in our elections for voting systems that present a palpable risk of missing or miscounting votes,” the report states.

Chen commended efforts by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) and the state Division of Elections to enhance voter registration opportunities to MVC customers in the last six months.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Public Advocate with MVC and the Division of Elections in March, the state has instituted measures to ensure that all MVC customers are offered an opportunity to register to vote whenever they do any business at an MVC office, as required by the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

In addition, the New Jersey Division of Elections, now housed within the New Jersey Secretary of State’s office, sent more than 800,000 letters to MVC customers who may not have been offered an opportunity to register to vote, offering instructions on how to do so.

“The state of New Jersey has taken unprecedented steps in the last two years to enhance voter registration as required under the NVRA,” said Chen, noting that the MVC reported processing 42,487 voter registrations in 6 months ending September 1 of this year. 

“More than 42,000 registrations in six months nearly doubles the pace of registrations from the 2004-06 reporting cycle; 92,890 people registered through MVC in that entire two-year period,” said Chen.  “This is tremendous progress and it will only pick up as the training and monitoring protocols continue to take hold.”

The report also reiterates the need for elections officials to ensure that the state’s voting systems are as error free as possible and the poll workers are well trained.

For example, where a registered voter’s information is missing from a poll book, poll workers should give that voter a provisional ballot instead of turning them away.

“We know that there are people who believe they are registered but, when turned away from the polls, simply walk away and give up,” said Chen. Instead, he said, such individuals should ask for a provisional ballot, contact their county board of elections or go to the county courthouse where judges hear appeals to voting denials on Election Day.

In addition, elections officials at all levels must ensure that the polls are open on time at 6 a.m. and that voters are provided with paper emergency ballots if a voting machine breaks down or delays voting. While the narrow margins separating the winning and defeated Presidential candidates in the 2000 Presidential race in Florida (537 votes out of over 5.9 million cast) drew attention to the need to tighten up voting procedures nationally, it has been 27 years since New Jersey had such a close election for statewide office. That was in the 1981 general election when Thomas Kean defeated James Florio by 1,797 votes out of over 2.3 million votes cast, or 0.0759 percent. 

Still, close elections continue to occur regularly.  “We have assembled sufficient data in this report to show that close elections occur in some jurisdictions virtually every time voters go to the polls.  And these thin margins of victory and defeat occur throughout the election calendar and in all regions of the State.  They affect general, primary, and nonpartisan elections (such as municipal or board of education elections), candidates from both major political parties, and of course, the voters who are electing the officials who will lead them.”

For more information about the Department of the Public Advocate’s voting rights project visit www.njpublicadvocate.gov. For additional information about voting in New Jersey visit the Division of Elections website at www.njelections.gov

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