NJ Election 2020: President, Congress, Local NJ Election Results
POINT PLEASANT - The polls have closed, ballots are still being tallied and New Jersey picked its choice for president and US senator while the results were still coming in for 12 congressional representatives.
Elections officials were still counting votes in hundreds of local races on Wednesday, many of them nail-biters. Garden State residents will also voted to legalize marijuana (see results below).
Long before the election itself became a nail-biter, Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, defeated the Republican incumbent, President Donald Trump, in New Jersey. New Jersey has 14 electoral votes, and Biden will need every one of them if he, indeed, is on track to defeat Trump. Read more: Biden Wins NJ In 2020 Presidential Election, AP Projects
Trump, whose casinos in New Jersey helped make him a national household name, was not expected to present a strong challenge to Biden in New Jersey, which hasn't voted for a Republican for president since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Biden, the former Delaware senator who served as Barack Obama's vice president from 2009 to 2017, was leading the president anywhere from 13 to 24 points in various New Jersey polls. With 64 precincts reporting, Biden was winning the Garden State 61 to 37 percent, according to The Associated Press.
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Incumbent Democrat Cory Booker also was projected to defeat Republican Rik Mehta, according to The Associated Press. Read more: Cory Booker Wins In 2020 NJ Senate Election, AP Says
Booker, who was first elected to his post in 2013, is the former mayor of Newark and still lives in the city's central ward, a fact he played up during his bid for president. His run ended in January, when the senator announced there was no longer a path to victory.
Mehta, an attorney and former U.S. Food and Drug Administration official, outlasted several other Republican candidates who either dropped out of the race or were defeated in the primary election.
All 12 of the state's congressional seats will be decided. New Jersey's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives is split between 10 Democrats and two Republicans heading into Election Day.
After several failed attempts in the state Legislature, voters also voted to legalize the possession and use of marijuana. With 66 of the precincts reporting, the measure passed by a 66 to 33 percent spread. Read more: NJ Legalizes Recreational Marijuana: AP
The drug isn't expected to be available in New Jersey stores immediately, but the referendum's passage will help Gov. Phil Murphy fulfill a promise he made when he campaigned for office in 2017.
Voters also agreed to make peacetime veterans eligible to receive the veterans' property tax deduction. Read more: NJ Redistricting, Peacetime Vets Exemption Proposals Approved: AP
A number of local races in New Jersey communities such as Toms River, Brick and elsewhere were also being determined as voters took the polls on a busy Election Day (see below).
Key Congressional races
Democrats flipped a number of seats in the House of Representatives in 2018, but one of the seats flipped back last year.
That 2nd District race was expected to be the most closely contest of the 12, as Democrat Amy Kennedy was challenging Republican Jeff Van Drew, a former Democrat, in the 2nd Congressional District. On Tuesday night, Van Drew was claiming victory even though The Associated Press hadn't called the race by Wednesday morning.
Here were the hotly contested races that helped keep the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives (click on the race):
Local races
Here are the key municipal and school board races that could have some surprising results (click on the links):
Since the change to this year's election was announced by Gov. Phil Murphy because of the coronavirus, there have been many questions about how the process will work.
Every the ballot sent through the mail had to be postmarked by Nov. 3. It must be received by your county's election boards by 8 p.m. on Nov. 10.
"Every vote should be safe. Every vote should be secure. Every vote should be counted," Murphy said of the process.
See our full election coverage for New Jersey on our topic page.
This article originally appeared on the Point Pleasant Patch
