9:50 p.m.: Voters in Atlantic City rejected a switch to nonpartisan elections for their local government Tuesday, giving a victory to Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his supporters, who said the change would hurt Democrats and cost taxpayers too much money.

About 56% of voters said ‘no’ to the ballot question asking if they wanted to move to May nonpartisan elections, giving up running as party members.

With 95% of the vote in, the, 1,469 voters opposed the election change with a  ‘no’ vote. Another 1,146 voters were in favor of the change, according to the Atlantic County Clerk’s Office. 

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9:35 p.m.: Incumbent Congressman Jeff Van Drew declares victory in 2nd congressional district race. Van Drew, a Republican,  defeated Democrat Tim Alexander.  

9:15 p.m.: In Corbin City, Republican Wayne M. Smith has defeated Democrat Matthew Kane in the race for Mayor. While Daniel Patterson defeated Nikki Nichols in the race for a council seat. 

7:30 p.m.: Cumberland County voting machines could not be turned on when polls opened at 6 a.m., because they had trouble adjusting from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time, an elections official said.

Congressional candidate Democrat Tim Alexander, of Galloway Township, said he did not expect voting hours to be extended.

His opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, did not expect the problem to delay results.

An official familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak on the record said voters who showed up between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. were able to vote with emergency paper ballots.

7:00 p.m.: Polls around the state close in an hour. 

4:30 p.m.: Atlantic City voters headed to the polls on Tuesday to vote on a possible change of government. 

Residents voting at the Richmond Avenue School were torn about the change of government vote.

If approved, future municipal elections would be nonpartisan and conducted in May, rather than June primaries and November general elections.

Candidates would run as individuals with no party affiliation.

Mathew Marino, 55, voted for the change. 

“There would be more votes for who we wanted to get in,” said Marino, who usually goes right down the Republican isle when voting.

Marino welcomed the new government system his yes vote would bring.

3:30 p.m. : Turnout appears brisk for Election Day in Ocean City, where county seats, congressional representation and school board candidates are on the ballot.

12:20 p.m.: Incumbent Congressman Jeff Van Drew arrives to vote in Ocean View, Dennis Township. Van Drew said he will go target shooting after voting. Van Drew is being challenged by Democrat Tim Alexander in the race in the 2nd Congressional District. 

12:15 p.m. : Steady voter turnout in Absecon, according to Press of Atlantic City reporter Eric Conklin. 

11:40 a.m. : New Jersey’s 12 U.S. House races are atop the ticket for voters who’ll wrap up casting ballots on Tuesday in this year’s midterm contest.

Democrats are defending 10 seats to the Republicans’ two in the first election since congressional districts were redrawn after the 2020 census.

Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m., though voters had an early in-person voting window that closed Sunday. Voters also have been sending mail-in ballots for weeks as well.

The GOP is optimistic that it can win in the newly drawn 7th District, where incumbent Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski faces a rematch against Republican former state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. The district picked up more Republican voters after its boundaries in the northwest were redrawn.

Malinowski, who is seeking his third term, narrowly defeated Kean, a former state lawmaker and the son of former Republican Gov. Tom Kean Sr., in 2020. Malinowski first won election by defeating Republican incumbent Rep. Leonard Lance in 2018.

The race is among the most closely watched in New Jersey, which has no statewide contests or ballot questions this year.

Malinowski cast Kean as too reliant on support from voters loyal to former President Donald Trump to represent the district, which swung from reliably GOP to Democratic control during his years in the White House. Kean has seized on inflation as a top issue and hammers on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he is betting is unpopular with voters.

Malinowski is a former Obama administration official and supported impeaching Trump as well the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that Democratic President Joe Biden signed a year ago.

Kean served as the top Republican in the state Senate from 2008 until this year after declining to seek office again in last year’s election.

Democratic incumbents Mikie Sherrill in the 11th District in the northern part of the state and Andy Kim in the 3rd District in south and central New Jersey won election for a first term along with Malinowski in 2018. However, their districts became more Democratic when the boundaries were redrawn. Democrats who controlled the redistricting process.

The redistricting commission met months after reports that Malinowski had bought and sold stocks with a stake in the country’s COVID-19 response. There is no indication Malinowski acted on inside information to make his investment decisions and said he didn’t direct his broker to make particular trades.

Sherrill faces Republican challenger Paul DeGroot, who’s worked as a prosecutor in Passaic County, along with a Libertarian Party candidate.

Kim faces Republican Bob Healey, who runs a yacht company in southern New Jersey, and two other candidates.

Incumbents are seeking reelection in every House race except one: Robert Menendez, the son of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, is the Democrats’ nominee to fill the 8th District seat opened by the retirement of Rep. Albio Sires.

The younger Menendez is an attorney in private practice and serves as a commissioner at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the region’s airports, ports and tunnels. He faces Republican Marcos Arroyo and five others in the district.

8:10 a.m. : Democratic candidate in the 2nd Congressional District race Tim Alexander voted in Smithville this morning at 6:30 a.m. 

Voters will decide whether to give U.S. Rep Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, a third term in office, the fate of partisan elections in Atlantic City and whether Democrats will keep the Atlantic County commissioner seat that represents the resort, in Tuesday’s general election.

Polls are open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, with 28,000 poll workers making it all happen at about 3,200 polling locations across New Jersey, the office of the Secretary of State said Monday.

Results should be available a bit earlier this year, as a new state law allowed elections officials to open and prepare vote-by-mail ballots for machine counting during the days leading up to the election. That means they can be counted faster on Election Day.

As of Monday, 973,240 out of 6.5 million registered voters in New Jersey had requested vote-by-mail ballots, and 511,676 had been returned to their County Boards of Elections for counting.

Vote-by-mail ballots still can be returned up until 8 p.m. Tuesday at a secure ballot dropbox in the voter’s county, via the mail if postmarked by 8 p.m., or in person at the County Board of Elections.

Turnout stayed steady in the second year of early voting by machine, which happened Oct. 29 to Nov. 6, with 213,919 voting early statewide, 6,426 in Atlantic County and 2,967 in Cape May County, elections officials said.

“There was about a 3% turnout, slightly down from 2021 which I personally think isn’t too bad, given ‘21 was the gubernatorial race, with a normal higher turnout to begin with,” said Atlantic County Superintendent of Elections Maureen Bugdon. “The Legislature, elections officials, everyone is hoping it will catch on and become more utilized by the electorate. We shall see in the coming years.”

“I’m feeling good. I think it’s going to be a historic day,” Van Drew said on Monday afternoon.

“Before people go to vote they should go and fill their car with gas, go to the grocery store and buy groceries for the week, take a peek at their 401K and pay their bills,” Van Drew said. “This is really to me and to many people about whether we are going to become more dependent on government than ever and more socialist in nature.”

Democrat Tim Alexander said he would be working into the wee hours Monday night and Tuesday with his team, doing their best to get every last Democratic voter to participate.

“I feel good about the election, the pundits and I do not agree,” Alexander said of predictions that Democrats will suffer because of President Joe Biden’s low approval numbers.

“People are paying more at the gas pump and more for a can of soup, but that is going to pass, and women will still be without their constitutional rights that were stripped away when Roe was overturned,” Alexander said of the U.S. Supreme Court ending the court’s protection of abortion rights this summer.

John Froonjian, executive director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University, said this election could see record turnout once vote-by-mail and Election Day machine counts are added to early voting totals.

A recent Stockton poll found voter enthusiasm high this year, he said, and with the control of Congress at stake the trend towards focusing on national issues could push turnout to record levels.

The statewide turnout in 2018, which was another Congressional election, was pretty much a record at 54%, Froonjian said.

“It was higher than last year’s gubernatorial election, which was only 40%,” Froonjian said. “It shows you what gets the blood running. It’s not so much the State House as Congress.”

The October debate between Van Drew and Alexander sponsored by the Hughes Center and The Press of Atlantic City was viewed 3,000 times online, Froonjian said.

“We’ve put them out before on video and gotten 1,000 to 1,200 views. To have 3,000 people view an election debate is a sign there is really a lot of interest out there,” Froonjian said.

It’s difficult to predict how the vote will go in Atlantic City, Froonjian said, where a ballot question is asking if the city should switch to nonpartisan elections in May for local offices, rather than continue to hold party primaries in June and a general election in November.

Candidates would run as individuals with no indication of party affiliation if the ballot question passes.

Mayor Marty Small Sr. and five Democratic City Council members oppose the change, and the lone Republican on council and three Democratic council members are supporting the change.

Those supporting the change are also critics of Small.

“Normally when it’s a Republican vs. Democrat issue, I’d say Democrats clearly want to keep partisan elections and would prevail,” Froonjian said. “But this is Democrat vs. Democrat, which makes it tougher. I guess it’s a test of Marty Small’s organization, and whether they will get their people out to beat this back.”

In the last mayoral election, Small dominated, but two of the council people who are pushing for the change also did well in that election, Froonjian said.

The change would rob the city’s Democratic committee, which is dominated by Small supporters, of their power to choose which candidates to back in primary elections.

“I know Democrats up the ballot — there is no question they want it to stay the way it is. It’s a real plus for them,” Froonjian said of having well-known local candidates help Democratic candidates for county, state and federal office.

Atlantic County Democrats supported redistricting that changed the first district from safely Democratic, covering primarily Atlantic City and Pleasantville, to a more competitive one pairing Atlantic City with the Downbeach towns of Ventnor, Margate, Longport and a slice of Egg Harbor Township.

The redistricting also drastically changed the second district, which had been safely Republican, making it much more competitive by pairing Pleasantville with the Mainland communities of Northfield, Linwood and Somers Point and some of Egg Harbor Township.

Now incumbent Democratic Commissioner Ernest Coursey is facing a challenge by Republican Vern Macon, who heads of a fire suppression company. The results will show whether the Democratic gamble to have a better chance in the second will pay off, or rob them of one of just two seats they now hold on the nine-member county Board of Commissioners.