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Election Results

by Amie Rukenstein

With thousands of votes by mail still to be counted, many New Jersey races remain too close to call, and Hopewell Township’s race for Committee is on that list.

Statewide, as of 3:07am this morning, according to the AP, Republican Jack Ciattarelli had a slight lead with 49.65% to incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy’s 49.60%. AP reported at that time that this was with 88% of the expected vote. It appears that vote by mail results in many precincts have not yet been released.

In Mercer County, while State representative incumbent Democrats State Senator Shirley Turner, and Members of the Assembly Anthony Verrelli and Verlina Reynolds-Jackson retained their seats by a comfortable margin, Republicans had a much better showing than they have in recent years.

In Hopewell Township, Republican candidate for Township Committee Edward “Jack” Jackowski is slightly ahead of Democrat Uma Purandare this morning, but with no vote by mail results yet released by the County, the race is too close to call.

Hamilton’s local races, as well as their Assembly representatives, also remain too close to call. Most of the other municipal races in Mercer County were won by Democrats. Click here for those results.

Democrat incumbent County surrogate Diane Gerofsky won by a comfortable margin and the three open County Commissioner (formerly called Freeholder) seats were all won by Democrats, including by Hopewell Township Committee member Kristin McLaughlin, whose seat on the Committee now will be filled by the choice of the local Democratic organization. The other newly elected Commissioners are incumbent Sam Frisby and newcomer Terrance Stokes.

The Pennington Borough and Hopewell Borough municipal races were uncontested and all won by Democrats. Hopewell Borough incumbent Council members Samara McAuliffe and Deb Stuhler retained their positions as did Pennington Borough incumbent Mayor James Davy and Council member Deborah Gnatt. Newcomer Nadine Stern will fill the other open Pennington Borough seat.

For Hopewell Valley Regional School District Board of Education: Jacqueline Genovesi appears to have handily won one of the two open seats in the Township. The other open seat in the Township is too close to call between incumbent Deborah Linthorst and Kimberly Stolow. Votes by mail are likely to resolve that race. Hopewell Borough did not have a race for BOE and Pennington elected newcomer Alexander Reznick, who was unopposed.

In public questions: there were two questions asked by the State, both pertaining to gambling. The first concerned putting wagers on collegiate sports and the second on whether permissions for groups who conduct raffles or bingos can be expanded to use the proceeds for their own operating expenses. Ballotpedia.com is reporting that the first question failed by the second passed.

Mercer County also asked a public question pertaining to the reallocation of Open Space funds. That question passed overwhelmingly.

This is a developing story and will be updated as results are released.


Edited at 9:57am:

The uncontested seats for Hopewell Township Fire Commissioner were won by Joseph Novak and Christopher Jones.

1:39pm: click here for updated results

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