From Mayor Frank McGehee, October 26:
As of Oct. 26th, 10,303 BALLOTS HAVE BEEN CAST in Maplewood.
Overall, 196,478 Ballots have been received in Essex County with 72% via the Secure Ballot Boxes.
Haven’t voted yet? Please mail or drop your ballot in our Secure ballot box located at 1618 Springfield Ave today!
YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE.
Again, here are a few key points:
Election conducted primarily through vote-by-mail ballots.
Ballots must be returned by Nov. 3rd, either by mail (postmarked by 11/03), by depositing it in a local secure ballot drop box (by 8 p.m. on 11/03), or by handing it directly to a poll worker at a polling place on Nov. 3rd (signature required).
All ballots sent are real ballots. Sample ballots can be viewed at essexclerk.com.
If the County rejects a ballot, a letter will be sent to the voter stating the reason and the voter will be given an opportunity to fix the defect.
Ballots will be able to be tracked at essexclerk.com (name required) and elections.nj.gov(voter ID required).
Voting at a polling location will be by a paper provisional ballot.
All individuals with disabilities will have access to an ADA-conforming voting machine.
US CENSUS
Thank You THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
According to 2020CENSUS.GOV, our final 2020 town response rate was 78.7% which beat our final 2010 response rate of 78.2%. Our 6 tract responses rates ranged from 92.3% to 69.9%. Congrats to South Orange for a town wide response rate of 79.6%. The county final response rate was 62.5% and the state was 69.5%
Auxiliary Police Volunteer Program
Last week the Township Committee by a vote of 3-1-1 voted to disarm our Auxiliary Police Volunteer Program and deactivate the program until we can rewrite our Standard Operating Procedures/training program that decouples any need for the use of a firearm. Again I want to thank our Auxiliary Police volunteers for their years of service and tireless dedication to date to our community, it is greatly appreciated.
As part of the process toward rewriting our Standard Operating Procedures/training program, this week I will be sitting down with our Police Chief and Town Administrator. I have great confidence in the current leadership of our police department led by Chief DeVaul, Deputy Chief Sally, and Captain Malloy to continue keeping our community safe.
As we continue to move forward, let’s not fall victim to an “us vs. them” mindset. This mindset is not community-focused and it’s counterproductive. As a community, we must be willing to have tough conversations respectfully so that we can continue to grow in community and in fellowship together.
Mayor Frank
