Village Green aims to cover all local elections as fairly and completely as possible.
The general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Find information on registering to vote here. Gov. Murphy has announced that all 6.3 million New Jersey voters will be sent ballots to return either by mail, in person or into secure drop boxes.
Read more about how to vote in NJ here.
Locally, two seats are up on the Maplewood Township Committee. Incumbents Vic DeLuca and Dean Dafis (the current Deputy Mayor) are running unopposed.
Six candidates — only one of whom is an incumbent — are running for election to the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education this November. Five people are vying for three full-term (3-year) open seats, while one incumbent will run to complete the remainder of the term she assumed after a sitting board member stepped down in January.
The South Orange-Maplewood BOE candidates are:
- Susan Lewis Bergin, Maplewood
- Courtney Winkfield, South Orange
(Bergin and Winkfield are running together on the “Collaborate, Belong, Thrive” platform.)
- Melanie Finnern, South Orange: “Parent for Progress”
- Elissa Malespina, South Orange: “Choice for Change”
- Deborah Engel, Maplewood
- Kamaljit (Kamal) Zubieta, Maplewood: “For All Children” (running to complete remainder of term)
Village Green will publish candidate profiles for all candidates before the elections. These profiles must outline a candidate’s history and platform and not engage in attacks on opposing candidates.
We look forward to covering candidate forums and will post information on forums when they are announced.
We do not cover individual candidate’s coffees, meet-and-greets or campaign events. However, due to the difficulties presented by COVID-19, we are inviting candidates this year to post one-time notices for coffees/meet-and-greets/campaign events on our Facebook group The Village Green News & Views. Otherwise, no campaigning is allowed on our Facebook group.
Village Green publishes Letters to the Editors in support of candidates. Publishing these letters is at the discretion of the editors. We do not publish letters attacking competing candidates. We aim to publish as many letters as we receive — providing they do not contain personal attacks, profanity or verifiably false information; however, if there is a great volume and they are received late in the race, we cannot guarantee that they will be posted. Letters to the Editors can be submitted to villagegreennj@gmail.com. Please provide your name and place of residence (town and state).
The deadline for submitting a Letter to the Editor is Tuesday, October 27 at 5 p.m.
Candidates are welcome to advertise on the site; however, advertising will not impact news coverage. In addition, candidates who present newsworthy items may receive coverage at the discretion of the editors.
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If you cannot afford to pay for our coverage, please email us at villagegreennj@gmail.com and we will provide you with free access to the site, no questions asked.
