Registrations jump in time for general election

By Audrey Levine Staff Writer
   MANVILLE — On Tuesday, one of the most important elections in recent history will end with a new president of the United States and, for Manville residents, with two residents filling three-year seats on the Borough Council.
   Running for the open seats are Republican incumbents Kathy Quick and Steve Szabo, Democrats Lou Fischer and Ron Skirkanish, and independent Rich Onderko.
   According to Jerry Midgette, election administrator for Somerset County, 5,121 people in Manville had registered to vote in this historic election year, as of Wednesday. This is out of a total population in town of close to 11,000.
   ”It’s definitely an increase over last year,” he said. In the 2008 presidential primaries, 4,608 people had registered to vote. “We were hearing that about 40 percent of voters turned out for the primaries. I think people are expecting that to double in the election.”
   According to Mr. Midgette, 2,724 voters are registered as unaffiliated, 1,012 are registered Republican and 1,383 are registered Democrat.
   Mr. Midgette said that the county is expecting about 70 percent of registered voters to turn out for the actual election.
   In addition, Mr. Midgette said, about 14,000 absentee ballots have been sent out of Somerset County.
   ”We are getting unprecedented registration, (and) we expect high return on the absentee ballots,” he said. “I think this will be higher than anything we have seen before in New Jersey.”
   To account for the anticipated increase in voters, Mr. Midgette said the county is taking several precautions to ensure that everyone who wants to is able to vote easily and quickly. First, he said, all election board workers are being required to attend training classes, despite the fact that they are normally only held once every two years.
   In these classes, Mr. Midgette said, workers will go through the responsibilities for opening and closing the voting machines, and making sure everything runs smoothly throughout the day.
   ”We have also had to increase staffing to get registrations in the system because of the high volume,” he said.
   Finally, Mr. Midgette said the county is making plans to account for any problems with the machines themselves. He said technicians will be readily available to make any repairs, and there will be backup procedures so that people are not required to wait extra time in line while a machine is fixed.
   ”We have contingencies in place,” he said.
   Voting will be held in four different locations throughout Manville. District 1 will vote in the Alexander Batcho Intermediate School (ABIS) library, on North 13th Avenue; Districts 2 and 3 will vote in the main hall of Firehouse No. 3, on North Eighth Avenue; Districts 4, 5, 7 and 8 will vote in the Thomas Kavanaugh Post 2290 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Washington Avenue; and Districts 6 and 9 will vote in Weston Elementary School, on Newark Avenue.
   The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.