By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Lawrence Township voters cast their ballots overwhelmingly for Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, helping the Illinois senator gain the presidency of the United States.
Sen. Obama outpolled his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, by more than 2 to 1 in Lawrence Township. Sen. Obama received 9,123 votes and Sen. McCain earned 4,436 votes. Eight additional nominees, including perennial candidate Ralph Nader, received a combined 78 votes.
In all, 13,637 registered voters in Lawrence cast their ballots in the presidential race. There are 19,976 registered voters in the township, which translates into a 68-percent turnout for Tuesday’s general election.
Although national news reports predicted problems with voting machines around the country, Municipal Clerk Kathy Norcia said she did not receive any calls reporting problems in Lawrence.
Ms. Norcia said the only problem that she knew of was a parking shortage at the Lawrence Square Village clubhouse in the morning, which is the place where voters in District 16 cast their ballots. But when she visited the site off Quakerbridge Road in mid-afternoon, there were plenty of parking spaces.
Voters waited in line outside the polling places in several locations before the polls opened at 6 a.m. — including the Lawrenceville Fire Company and the Slackwood Fire Company, which house several voting districts. Ms. Norcia said there were more voters than usual waiting outside the Municipal Building before 6 a.m., which also is the voting place for several districts.
At the Lawrenceville Fire Company, about 40-percent of the registered voters had cast their ballots by noon, Ms. Norcia said. She said that when she tried to leave the polling place, “I had a heck of a time backing out of the parking space because (the voters) kept coming and coming.”
She added, “We had a wonderful turnout, which is what an election should be. It’s great to see people taking an interest. There should be this kind of turnout for all elections, including the school board election.”
Lawrence Township voters also gave more of their votes to Democratic U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg than to his Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer. They voted 7,816 to 4,756 for Sen. Lautenberg, who claimed his fifth Senate term.
In the contest to represent the 12th Congressional District, incumbent U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, a Democrat, outpolled Republican opponent Alan Bateman by a margin of 3 to 1 in Lawrence. Rep. Holt, who is going back to Washington, D.C. for his sixth term, got 9,169 votes to Mr. Bateman’s 3,512 votes.
Incumbent Mercer County Sheriff Kevin Larkin, a Democrat, fought off a challenge by Republican Party nominee James McSorley. Sheriff Larkin received 7,591 votes to Mr. McSorley’s 4,880 votes in Lawrence.
At the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Democratic incumbent Freeholder Lucy Walter and her running mates, Daniel Benson and John Cimino, earned more votes than Republican challengers Tom White and Cindy Randazzo in Lawrence.
Ms. Walter received 8,276 votes, Mr. Benson got 7,670 votes and Mr. Cimino earned 8,615 votes in Lawrence. Mr. Benson filled out the unexpired term of former Freeholder Liz Muoio and Mr. Cimino rounded out the third slot.
Mr. White got 4,418 votes and Ms. Randazzo received 4,526 votes from Lawrence voters. Ms. Randazzo ran for the unexpired term and Mr. White ran for a regular term.

