PASCACK VALLEY—Emerson Mayor Danielle DiPaola said that her borough had the highest voter turnout of our eight Pascack Valley towns during the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election — and the second highest turnout of registered voters, at 52.39%, in Bergen County.
At the Nov. 23 Borough Council meeting, DiPaola noted local turnout ranked second in the county, behind Harrington Park, which turned out 53.34% of its registered voters.
“I’m so proud that the democratic process in Emerson works and we will strive to engage more residents to exercise their constitutional right to vote in future elections,” DiPaola said.
She added, “We want to hear from everybody, especially when it comes to electing your representatives.”
The mayor told Pascack Press a 52.39% voter turnout was good “but we could do better.”
Other Pascack Valley towns’ ranking high in turnout: Washington Township (52.21%); River Vale (50.1% for the local and regional BOE races); Woodcliff Lake (49.63%); Westwood (49.14%); Park Ridge (49.61%); Hillsdale (47.24%); and Montvale (44.68%).
This election, River Vale did not have a council or mayoral race.
This year’s General Election Nov. 2 was the first election in New Jersey where early voting (Oct. 23–31) was allowed, approved by Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this year.
Bergen County offered nine countywide polling places, with sites in River Vale and Woodcliff Lake in Pascack Valley.
Of Emerson’s 5,805 registered voters, 3,041 cast ballots in the General Election. This included: 2,423 voting in-person on Election Day; 448 mail-in ballot votes; 123 early voters; and 45 provisional voters.
Of its six election districts, District 6 topped all with 311 of 700 registered voters cast ballots, a 44.43 percent turnout.
Provisional votes are paper ballots taken from early voters or Election Day voters who showed up at the polls and officials could not verify their registration. Sometimes, provisional votes are submitted by registered mail-in voters who simply prefer to vote in person on Election Day.
Provisional ballots are vetted last by county election officials, following receipt, vetting and counting of all mail-in ballots. Mail-in ballots may be received up to six days after the election though the ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 2. Mail-in voters could have also dropped their ballots off at any one of 31 secure ballot drop boxes countywide by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Early in-person voting ran nine days from Oct. 23 through Oct. 31 at nine countywide locations, including River Vale and Woodcliff Lake in Pascack Valley. About 2% of voters countywide voted during early voting, said election officials.
River Vale fielded 849 early voters. River Vale logged 366 early voters.
Other early voting totals in the valley included Montvale, 271 votes; Township of Washington, 261 votes; Hillsdale, 206 votes; Park Ridge, 196 votes; Westwood, 189 votes; and Emerson, 123 votes.
Most early voters skewed Democratic, as did the majority of mail-in ballots in the valley, as well as mail-in ballots countywide.
County Clerk Elections Supervisor Sabrina Taranto said mail-in voter registrations have increased significantly since 2019’s General Election, due in part to more voters preferring the convenience of voting by mail.
She said many experienced the ease of mail-in voting in 2020 for the first time when Gov. Murphy mandated mail-in voting due to pandemic concerns. Mail-in ballots can be returned via U.S. mail or dropped at any of 31 secure ballot drop boxes countywide.
On Sept. 20, the Bergen County Clerk’s Office had to chase after Emerson’s 597 vote-by-mail ballots, which it sent out with a significant printing error. The county caught the error almost immediately and sent out corrected ballots, indicated as corrected, with an explanatory letter.
