MANVILLE: Where’s al the election fuss?

    Where’s all the election fuss?
    Balloting day is less than seven weeks away, yet all we’ve seen — from candidates up and down the ballot — makes us yawn.
    We in New Jersey will vote to elect a president this year, too, although you’d never know it without the TV ads. Presidential candidates, or even their surrogates, rarely come here, except to raise money (as in the First Lady’s visit to a private affair in Princeton on Sunday.)
    Analysts of our arcane Electoral College system of selecting a leader have determined that the national election has come down to fewer than 10 states where the race is closely contested. So that’s where the candidates go. It’s a rare day that President Obama doesn’t cross paths with Mitt Romney in Ohio, Florida or Virginia. Don’t expect a motorcade or rally in central New Jersey.
    Pennsylvania, which is the closest the national race will come to here, is buzzing over the diversion of a new law that requires a photo ID card in order to vote. In the name of election credibility, state Republican legislators there seem willing to disenfranchise tens of thousands, many of whom have voted at their local polls for years. Go figure.
    New Jersey doesn’t impose such a burden. But don’t tarry getting signed up to vote; registration deadline here is Oct. 16.
    Nor have there been other “voter suppression” tactics, like limiting early voting. New Jersey has a relatively sane approach; it doesn’t require swearing you’ll be ill or out of town on Election Day. If you want to vote early, all you have to do is request a vote-by-mail ballot. The deadline to ask for one to be sent to you by mail is Oct. 30.
    We have a U.S. Senate race in New Jersey, but little news to show for it. There has been a bit more stirring in the local Congressional races, but not much. New Jersey is considered reliably Democratic for federal offices, and redistricting has ensured most of the state’s Washington, D.C., delegation should win easily.
        In Manville, Borough Council races have been quiet, too. Some see political stirring of the pot in the recent hubbub over drinking at a summer softball tournament on school property. Any discussion of real issues — what to do about flooding is the 800-pound gorilla on the stump — has been virtually non-existent.
    In 2008 the U.S. saw one of the most motivated election campaigns ever. About 80 percent of the electorate turned out. Not so this year. It’s as though both sides see an advantage in a lower turnout, except in states where they really need it.
    In the end, it seems that both parties are resorting to the most timeworn voter suppression tactic of all — good ole apathy.