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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Vote by mail in New Jersey
At the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden, Gary Nyktas offers information on New Jersey's mail-in voting procedures to Carol Sergeiko. (APRIL SAUL / Staff Photographer).

This year on Election Day, New Jersey voters won’t have to choose between performing their civic duty and staying home to catch the last of the season’s negative campaign ads. They can vote early by mail.

In the spring, the state did away with its absentee ballot restrictions and switched to simple mail-in voting in the hopes of increasing turnout. And voters can test drive that new system just in time for the gubernatorial race.
 
Applications can be found online, at www.state.nj.us/state, or obtained from county clerks, who send out the official ballots. Those votes will be counted on Election Day, Nov. 3.
 
When applying, voters can also sign up to participate by mail in future elections. They’ll have three choices. Under option A, they will automatically receive mail-in ballots for all elections in that calendar year. Option B will sign them up for mail-in ballots for all future November elections. Or they can choose Options A and B.
 
Mail-in voting is new for the East Coast, but has been used successfully in Western states, where more than 50 percent of ballots are cast in advance. In last year’s presidential election, 34 states offered early voting by mail or by opening polls for extra days.
 
Mail-in ballots have been available since September. Get yours now — and give yourself more time to enjoy that Election Day ad blitz.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 3:00 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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