Village Green aims to cover all local elections as fairly and completely as possible.
South Orange
This year, four candidates are vying for three seats on the six-person South Orange Board of Trustees: Braynard “Bobby” Brown, Neil Chambers, Bill Haskins and Karen Hilton. Election Day is Tuesday, May 11. South Orange elections are non-partisan; candidates do not run under a party affiliation. Terms are for four years. The Village President is elected directly every four years; the next election for Village President takes place in 2023.
The last day to register to vote in the South Orange municipal election is Tuesday, April 20, 2021 and the last day to apply for a Vote by Mail Ballot for this year’s municipal election is Tuesday, May 4, 2021. The May 11 South Orange Election will be an in-person election.
Brown, Haskins and Hilton are running together. The slate has a Facebook page and website. Hilton is the lone incumbent. Chambers is running on a platform to re-open the schools.
Maplewood
Locally, two seats are up on the Maplewood Township Committee. Incumbent Nancy Adams is running with newcomer Jamaine Cripe for the Democratic nomination. They are unopposed in their primary. In addition, no Republican has filed to run in the Republican primary. Primary Day is Tuesday, June 8, 2021. The general election takes place on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Gov. Phil Murphy has stated that the June primary elections will take place primarily in person this year. Find out more about voter registration here.
South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education
The South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education election takes place on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Village Green will update with more information as we approach the filing deadline in late July. Three of nine seats come up for election each year. This year, the seats held by 1st Vice President Shannon Cuttle and board members Annemarie Maini and Kamal Zubieta are up for election.
Village Green Guidelines
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 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 for the South Orange municipal election is Tuesday, May 4 at 5 p.m. The deadline for submitting a Letter to the Editor for the Maplewood municipal election is Tuesday, June 1, 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.
Our Election coverage is behind our paywall and is not free. If you currently do not subscribe to Village Green, you can Subscribe here.
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.
