By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
With fervor building as the Nov. 4 election nears, voters have been sending in registration forms by the bushels, loading up county offices to critical mass.
On Tuesday, the last day for new voters to register, Burlington County Superintendent of Elections Joanne Nyikita estimated that the office had processed over 5,000 applications in the last week alone.
“To say that we are backlogged is an understatement,” she said.
Thousands of forms arrived daily just prior to Tuesday’s deadline..
“It has been incredibly busy, the phones ringing off the hook, and people are constantly coming in through the door,” she said.
She acknowledged that not all non-registered voters waited until the last minute, as the office had seen a spike in voter registration since right after Labor Day.
Even though the office technically closes at 4:30 p.m., there has been an “all hands on deck” mentality that the staff has adopted, working nights and weekend hours in order to process all of the registrations that the office received.
As of Tuesday, the office was working on entering registrations that were postmarked Oct. 9, she said.
So far, the elections office has registered approximately 270,000 voters. Ms. Nyikita estimated this figure is 17,000 more than those registered before the June primaries.
Ms. Nyikita, who has been superintendent of elections for the past eight years, said the latest figures surpass the 2004 presidential election year total by a little over 5,000.
Bordentown City Clerk Pat Ryan said late last week that while there had been an influx of traffic coming into the municipal office, the clerk’s office hadn’t been keeping any official records on who asked for voter registration forms.
“I would say that the increase has been consistent within the last few weeks,” she added.
Springfield Township Clerk Patty Clayton attributes the high volume of residents coming in and requesting registration forms to the high profile election.
Within the last week, Ms. Clayton estimated that there has been extremely high traffic, right up until Tuesday, of people calling, asking how they should send in the forms.
As of Oct. 8, Ms. Nyikita said there were 90,492 registered Democrats, 65,192 registered Republicans, and a little over 114,600 un-affiliated registered voters in the county.
“Years ago there was a big gap in the Democrats and the GOP, then the Republicans had a large lead,” she said.
Then, after the February primaries, the Democrats had had a big bump, since there was a huge contested Democratic primary,“” she added.
Due to the spike in voter registration form requests, Ms. Nyikita said that she is anticipating high voter turnout at the polls. “I’ve encouraged people to vote at off hours, if you can go right at 6 a.m., go during that time, or go during the day,” she said.
“There’s going to be long lines, and people are just going to have to be patient,” she added.
Or, she offered up obtaining an absentee ballot to voters who wish to bypass long poll lines.
County Clerk Wade Hale said on Tuesday that the county clerk’s office had received approximately 9,000 applications for absentee ballots.
Applications sent through the mail must be received by Oct. 28. Applications can also be delivered in person to the county clerk’s office at the facility on Rancocas Road in Mount Holly, he added. Voters can also request an absentee ballot in person at the county clerk’s office on Rancocas Road in Mount Holly up until 3 p.m. Nov. 3. Completed absentee ballots must be received by the county board of elections no later than the close of the polls on Election Day.

