By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
In Tuesday’s earlier-than-ever presidential primary, local municipalities conformed with New Jersey’s Republican pick, Sen. John McCain, but broke from the state’s overall Democratic choice — largely opting for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton, whose victory in the state earned her the majority of its delegates.
Precipitating a much-reported shortage of voting authority slips, polling stations in area towns played host to a heavy voter turnout augmented by an especially strong showing of unaffiliated voters.
Meanwhile, potential delegates and backers of the candidates still in the running said the job of New Jersey supporters is far from over.
According to unofficial results posted by the state, Sen. Clinton gained 54 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Sen. Obama.
Sen. John McCain dominated the Republican field, earning 55 percent of the vote, compared to 28 percent for his closest competitor, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who dropped out of the race on Thursday.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas trailed with 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
Sen. Clinton’s victory earns her 54 delegates, compared to 46 for the Illinois senator, according to The New York Times. The 20 remaining Democratic delegates are unpledged.
The 52 Republican delegates will be officially selected for Sen. McCain in New Jersey’s June primary.
Locally, unofficial results from municipal clerks’ offices, not including absentee ballots, showed Sen. Obama defeating Sen. Clinton by a margin of 68 percent to 30 percent in Princeton Borough; 63 percent to 35 percent in Princeton Township; 58 percent to 42 percent in Rocky Hill; 54 percent to 35 percent in Montgomery Township; and 50 percent to 49 percent in Plainsboro. In West Windsor Township, 52 percent of voters chose Sen. Clinton over Sen. Obama, who earned 47 percent.
On the Republican ticket, Sen. McCain won in all six of the same municipalities. Mr. Romney followed in each jurisdiction at a distant second and Mr. Huckabee and Rep. Paul often vied or tied for third place with single-digit percentages. Sen. McCain earned his biggest victory — 63 percent, compared to 26 percent for Mr. Romney — in West Windsor, with comparable totals in the other towns. His closest victory was in Rocky Hill with 49 percent, compared to 41 percent for Mr. Romney.
The Mercer County Clerk’s Office announced Wednesday that many of the votes counted Tuesday were from the 2,300 absentee ballots processed by the office — a new record for a Mercer County primary.
Though perhaps not record-worthy totals, voter turnouts in local municipalities were considered by many to be high following Tuesday’s tallies.
At the polls
In Princeton Township, Clerk Linda McDermott reported 52 percent turnout, followed by Montgomery and West Windsor, both with approximately 42 percent, and Princeton Borough, with approximately 41 percent.
Plainsboro saw approximately 30 percent of its registered voters cast votes — cited as a good turnout by Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu.
”I attribute it to the tremendous national interest in the election, and the contest within the primary,” said Mayor Cantu. “A lot of young people came out, too.”
But like other local towns, Plainsboro did experience some issues while dealing with the high turnout and sometime temperamental voting machines.
Resident Rachel Roat said she filed a police report after taking issue with what she saw as less-than-perfect conditions at the polling place at Plainsboro’s Municipal Building.
Ms. Roat said she had overheard poll workers discussing problems with one of the voting machines that created a situation where they called voters back to recast their votes.
When another voter had trouble operating the machine, Ms. Roat said she became concerned and contacted Township Clerk Pat Hullfish and police Sgt. Troy Bell, who she filed the police report with.
”I wanted to make sure my vote counted,” said Ms. Roat. “A number of votes might not have been registered because they did not know how to operate the machine.”
It would be better if the township or someone else provided instructions on how to operate the machines properly, Ms. Roat said.
Ms. Hullfish said that an earlier problem with one of the machines had been corrected after assistance from the Middlesex County Board of Elections.
”I have no doubt that the votes were counted correctly,” said Ms. Hullfish. “There had been a small human error earlier.”
One of the machines had been set up incorrectly, affecting one voter, so the vote was recast properly after it had been determined that his vote had not been counted, Ms. Hullfish said.
”We spoke with her at length and tried to calm her down,” said Ms. Hullfish.
Before filing her police report, Ms. Roat was assisted in voting by a Plainsboro police officer, who then escorted her from the polling place, Ms. Hullfish said.
Elsewhere, problems were mostly limited to the apparent shortage in voting authorities — the slips given to voters before they enter the booths — that was experienced by several polling places.
Ms. McDermott said the issue was addressed quickly in Princeton Township.
”The county did provide more and they were delivered to the appropriate polling places,” she said. “It really didn’t seem to be a huge issue.”
Princeton Borough Clerk Lea Quinty said she saw the same scenario in the borough.
”I guess the county didn’t anticipate the amount of undeclared voters that would be showing up at the polls,” she said, adding that a Mercer County Board of Elections official personally showed up with additional vouchers.
Somerset County Board of Elections administrator Jerry Midgette said similar shortages were experienced, citing a significant number of unaffiliated voters flocking to take part in the Democratic vote.
However, the board of elections was able to deliver extra voting authorities to various locations before they actually ran out, he said.
”The voting authority shortage did not preclude anyone from voting at the time they wanted to vote,” Mr. Midgette said.
In West Windsor, Clerk Sharon Young said the township wasn’t fazed by the solid turnout.
”We were very, very busy,” said Ms. Young. “I actually thought the turnout was going to be a little higher, after we had around 90 percent for the last presidential election.”
For those not working or supervising the process, Super Tuesday meant a full day of hanging out at the polls, representing their preferred choice for president.
Although her candidate — Mr. Paul — only ended up getting 90 West Windsor votes on Tuesday, supporter Danna Hargett was out and about, sitting on a couple of lawn chairs covered with campaign posters in front of West Windsor’s Municipal Building, the site of one of the township’s polling places.
She said many residents she spoke with reminded her of her candidate’s lack of electoral success, but she paid that no mind.
”They remind me that he is trailing far behind, but I still think it’s important to agree with what your politicians are saying,” said Ms. Hargett. “It’s not wasting your vote. That’s voting for someone you don’t believe in.”
Similarly, New Jersey supporters of the frontrunners in the race said their work is not done.
The campaigns continue
On Tuesday night, supporters of Sen. McCain gathered at the Hilton Garden Inn in Hamilton, the municipality where the McCain campaign opened its state headquarters last week.
State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-14), Sen. McCain’s New Jersey campaign chairman, said he was glad to be able to call the senator’s Arizona headquarters to deliver the good news about New Jersey.
”We did not know what the race was going to look like when the polls opened,” Sen. Baroni said. “The McCain campaign — we’ve been up, we’ve been down, we were up again. It was all about Feb. 5. We were confident, but not overconfident.”
However, the ultimate goal of the New Jersey campaign is not to nominate Sen. McCain, but to elect him, Sen. Baroni said.
Now, backers in the state will focus on garnering the support of New Jersey’s “famously independent-minded voters” — including Democrats.
”We’re going to spend the next eight months getting ready for November,” he said.
And with Mr. Romney out of the race, the more contested matchup will likely play out in the Democratic race.
Jeff Laurenti, co-chairman of Mercer County For Obama, said his candidate’s acquisition of 46 New Jersey delegates is no small victory on the road to the party nomination.
A nearly hoarse Mr. Laurenti credited Sen. Obama’s strong local showing to a “feverish volunteer effort.”
He said members of that “all-volunteer guerilla insurgency” will now focus on helping out in upcoming primaries in other states, possibly even up to the Pennsylvania primary April 22.
Although “the notion of the Clintons’ inevitability has been shattered,” the remainder of the race is “going to be a tough claw,” he said.
Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, who described himself as a “supporter and potential delegate” for Sen. Clinton, said her performance Tuesday wasn’t necessarily cause for congratulations.
”Certainly Sen. Clinton won and that was one of the things I was looking for,” he said. “(But) in Mercer County, Sen. Obama had a very successful showing and won by a wide margin.”
Mr. Hughes even acknowledged that the local victories of his candidate’s opponent may have been a result of the qualities that some have said will ultimately propel him to the White House.
”To be absolutely honest, Sen. Obama has tapped in to a real desire of people to be involved in a substantive way in the direction that the country is going to take,” he said.
Still, Mr. Hughes said he was pleased to see Sen. Clinton winning a number of key states, including New York and California — and said some supporters will likely move on to volunteer in primary states like Ohio and Texas.
”It was exciting, but obviously there’s a lot of work for everyone before this race is over,” he said. “One of the great things about this race now is that it gets to continue on and that people get to hear from all the candidates for a little bit longer and what the specifics of their issues are.”
Staff writers Greg Forester and Katie Wagner contributed to this story.
