At 6 a.m., when this story went live, polling places in Verona opened for your voting. They will remain open until 8 p.m. tonight. And, at the risk of sounding like your high school civics teacher, if you have not already mailed in your ballot, it is your duty to get to your polling place and cast your vote.
We are not going to tell you how to vote; that’s old media. The candidates have put their positions on their Web sites, though we’d be remiss if we didn’t say that some could have done a better job of it.
If you have a minute, you should also read the transcript of a questionnaire that the League of Women Voters of Montclair sent to the candidates. (You have to download the Word document, and then scroll down to page 7 for the candidates for county executive, page 9 for the county clerk candidates.) There was a similar questionnaire asked of candidates for the 8th district of the U.S. Congress, but disappointingly, neither Republican candidate Roland Straten nor Independent Raymond Giangrasso responded to it. The League also took a look at the lone ballot question, which concerns whether New Jersey should have a constitutional amendment to dedicate assessments on state wages to pay employee benefits.
Unlike other towns, Verona does not have local offices up for grabs. Mayor Teena Schwartz noted at Monday night’s Town Council meeting that there have been calls to move Verona’s elections to a November ballot. The move would save the town about $25,000 in poll costs, but Schwartz worried that doing so could put Verona’s non-partisan elections into a more contentious format.
Here, then are the candidates, with links to their Web sites
U.S. Congress, 8th District
Essex County Executive
Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr., Dem.
If you have forgotten where your polling place is, the League has a Web tool to find it.
Home page image courtesy Theresa Thompson, via Flickr.
