Where do I vote in Bergen County is a common question from new residents. Elections happen every year and recently there have been a lot of changes. Call your town clerk to get the answer.
Election Day is November 7th this year. Bergen County elections are more significant than ever because many towns have combined elections to save money. They do this by having both school board and government elections both in November.
Holding an election is expensive. It doesn’t make economic sense to do it twice. Here’s something else: Turnouts are notoriously small for school board elections held separately. Towns save money and have more people voting in school elections.
School systems make up the largest part of a town’s budget. It’s smart to position things so more people vote on school budgets and Board members.
Even if you have been going to the same place for years to vote it’s a good idea to check with your town clerk to see if anything has changed. I remember one year when I lived in Tenafly going to the school 2 blocks from my house where I’d gone for over 10 years only to find out it was closed. Tenafly had changed the voting location to the McCandless Room in the Borough complex.
Double check with a call to your town clerk and make sure you vote. Each vote is indeed important. In the game of politics, 1 vote counts as 2. Did you know that? This is
because political parties figure that they’ve changed one vote against them into a vote for them thus it’s like 2 votes in their eyes. You can’t complain about what happens if you don’t vote.
What if I can’t be sure I’ll make it to vote? Absentee ballots fix that problem. There are rules for this. Your absentee ballot application request MUST be received by the Bergen County Clerk’s office no later than 7 days before the election. Get it now to be safe.
It’s easy to get an absentee ballot. You download it from the Bergen County Clerk’s website and print it out. Town clerks have them too but it’s easier for most of us to just download and print it. This is important: Mail in ballots have to be received by the Bergen County Clerk before voting ends on Election Day.
Go to the Bergen County Clerk’s website where you’ll find everything you need to know. Click on Services on the menu ribbon and you’ll see an entire section on elections. There is also the New Jersey Department of State Division of Elections. If you still have questions or need help, just contact me.
