PASCACK VALLEY—Nearly 10% of Bergen County’s registered voters are signed up to vote by mail in the Nov. 2 General Election — approximately 66,000 voters — and some new mail-in voters have sent back an application provided courtesy of a non-profit non-government organization.
White envelopes from The Center for Voter Information (centerforvoterinformation.org) have been appearing in mailboxes countywide bearing an application for a vote-by-mail ballot. The return envelope, with return postage paid, is addressed to the County Clerk, Bergen County, in Hackensack.
[See also our related story this issue: “Vote by mail: Our towns post big numbers,” Page 16.]
Sabrina Taranto, Bergen County Clerk Elections Division Supervisor, told Pascack Press that the applications, with the voter’s name and address filled in but nothing else completed, were not sent out by the county.
“A lot of voters have been calling us asking, Why am I getting this?” said Taranto. She said there was nothing suspicious about the mailing, which aims to sign up vote-by-mail voters. She noted the return mail-in application goes directly to the County Clerk’s office.
Taranto said the application form used in the mailer is a publicly available document.
She advised voters not interested in voting by mail to simply discard the mailing.
If a registered voter wants to completely fill out the vote by mail application and return it, Taranto said the clerk’s office will vet the document and voter, and — if all checks out — provide the voter with a mail-in ballot for the Nov. 2 General Election.
Taranto said that voters can also go online to the county clerk’s website, print out a vote by mail application, fill it out and send it in.
The deadline for applications to be returned is seven days before Nov. 2 unless you apply in-person at the clerk’s office.
Taranto said she was aware that voter outreach mailings by the Center for Voter Information were being conducted in nearby counties as well.
“I think that’s part of the reason we’re now getting more applications for mail-in ballots,” Taranto said. The envelope’s return address is Center for Voter Information, 20 S. Montgomery St, #380, Trenton.
A box near the top center of the envelope notes “Vote At Home Ballot Request Form — Do Not Discard.”
On its website, Center for Voter Information says it is a non-profit, non-partisan partner organization to Voter Participation Center, “both founded to provide resources and tools to help voting-eligible citizens register and vote in upcoming elections. With our partner organization, Voter Participation Center, we have helped more than 5.7 million voters register and get to the polls.”
In a letter accompanying the application mailing, Center for Voter Information President and CEO Tom Lopach writes, “Seventy-nine percent of voters in New Jersey cast their ballots before Election Day in the 2020 election. Join them in 2021 by returning this application to vote by mail.”
He adds, “The more people who vote by mail, the shorter the lines are for the people who do vote in person, so it is considerate of your neighbors to vote from home.”
Lopach notes that voting by mail protects voters’ privacy and that residents can track their mail-in ballot at trackmyballot.nj.gov.
We reached out to CVI for comment but did not hear back by press time.
It’s website says it’s a “non-partisan and non-governmental organization… We send out voter registration forms and vote-by-mail ballot applications to eligible voters across the country. The vote-by-mail ballot applications are tailored to each state and accepted by state and local election authorities. In fact, we provide samples of our mailings ahead of time to top state election officials, to ensure we comply with all state laws.”
It adds, “We have included a pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope so that you can send your vote-by-mail ballot application or voter registration form directly to your state or local election office. The information is private, and only election officials will read it. So please fill out the forms and participate in our great democracy!”
Ballotpedia says Lopach is a Democratic political advisor in Montana who served as chief of staff to Gov. Steve Bullock (D) from 2017 to 2019, when he began serving on Bullock’s 2020 presidential campaign. It says Lopach is the former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and former chief of staff to Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.)
Taranto said registered voters have three options for voting, including go to a local polling place Nov. 2; voting by mail with applications due by Oct. 26; and voting early at any of eight in-person countywide polling locations, Oct. 23–31.
As of Sept. 8, Taranto said 66,178 registered voters had requested vote-by-mail ballots and that 62,584 voters had signed up to be permanent vote by mail voters for future elections.
“It’s the most applications we’ve received in a long time,” she said, noting that approximately 1,000 vote by mail applications arrived recently.
For the Nov. 2 election, the county will offer 31 secure ballot drop boxes, up from 18 drop boxes that were available during the 2020 General Election.
Ballot drop-box locations include Emerson Borough Hall, River Vale Town Hall, and the Westwood Community Center.
A full ballot box listing can be found under “Early Voting Information” under the Elections & Voting tab on the county clerk’s website.
Editor’s note: This web story was updated after the print edition ran. We added an explanation of Center for Voter Information’s project via its website.