Murphy Vs. Ciattarelli: How Ocean County Voted Town-By-Town

Toms River NJ

05 November, 2021

2:01 PM

Description

OCEAN COUNTY, NJ — It has been the closest gubernatorial race in years. With the race declared for Phil Murphy over Jack Ciattarelli with 99 percent of the votes counted, here's a look at how Ocean County voted. According to unofficial tallies published by the Ocean County Board of Elections, the voter turnout in Ocean County was 46.95 percent, as of Friday afternoon. Of 455,804 registered voters in the county, 214,006 cast ballots for the 2021 election, according to the unofficial results. Not all of them voted in the gubernatorial race, however; about 2,000 voters skipped that choice on the ballot. Of the 211,896 ballots cast in the gubernatorial race, Ciattarelli received 143,148 votes and Murphy received 67,176. According to Ocean County Clerk Scott A. Colabella, the remaining ballots to be counted are any vote-by-mail ballots that were postmarked Nov. 2 or earlier that arrive and are counted by the close of business on Monday. Ocean County sent out about 54,000 vote-by-mail ballots for this election, Colabella said. According to the Ocean County election results website, 38,213 had been returned and counted as of Friday. On Tuesday, Nov. 9, the Board of Elections will start processing the approximately 5,500 provisional ballots that were cast at the polls on Election Day. The official election results will be determined at the Board of Canvassers meeting Nov. 15 and the County Clerk must certify official election results to the Secretary of State by Nov. 20. By comparison, Chris Christie received 124,238 votes in Ocean County when he was elected governor in 2009, when he unseated incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine. In that election, 52 percent of the county's 371,066 registered voters went to the polls. That turnout, in a county known as a reliably Republican stronghold, was seen as an important part of Christie's victory in an election where voter turnout overall was low. Of Ocean County's 455,804 voters, there are 170,257 registered Republicans, 101,334 registered Democrats, and 178,182 unaffiliated voters. In 2020, when the election was conducted by mail-in voting, 78 percent of Ocean County voters cast ballots. As of 4 p.m. Friday, Murphy had a margin of 58,708 votes, 1,275,814 to 1,217,106, according unofficial vote tallies published by the Associated Press. Lakewood had the lowest participation in the Ciattarelli-Murphy race of the largest towns in the county, at 34 percent of the town's 57,491 registered voters (out of a population of more than 135,000, according to the latest Census figures). Ciattarelli received more votes in the town, however, in spite of the fact that Murphy received the endorsement of the Vaad, the group of religious and other leaders who provide guidance and leadership for Lakewood's Orthodox Jewish community. Berkeley Township, with 36,632 voters, had 50.8 percent participation in the Murphy-Ciattarelli race, the highest percentage among towns with at least 19,000 registered voters. The highest percentage of votes cast in that race was in Barnegat Light, where 63.1 percent of registered voters cast ballots for one of the two candidates. Here's a look at every town in Ocean County, with the number of registered voters, the number of votes cast for Ciattarelli and Murphy, and the percentage of voters in each town who voted for either candidate. Vote totals are through the unofficial tallies posted as of 4 p.m. Friday. TOWNREG. VOTERS CIATTARELLIMURPHYPERCENTAGEBarnegat Light70224419963.1Barnegat19,8046,0833,24647.1Bay Head90528817551.2Beach Haven1,09532919647.9Beachwood8,1172,4491,07943.5Berkeley36,63212,9555,66250.8Brick58,07119,3688,62848.21Eagleswood1,39851216148.1Harvey Cedars46312112553.1Island Heights1,51848935355.5Jackson41,86913,1236,34946.5Lacey 23,2248,6082,84549.3Lakehurst 1,74943115933.7Lakewood57,49112,0367,56034.1Lavallette1,84380434462.3Little Egg Harbor16,6675,5372,36447.4Long Beach Twp. 3,2211,00071353.2Manchester38,89212,2536,89749.24Mantoloking3371344051.6Ocean Gate1,49943823945.2Ocean Twp. (Waretown)7,8242,9931,13652.8Pine Beach1,85062338854.6Plumsted Twp.6,3342,37473349.1Point Pleasant Beach4,0561,45366152.1Point Pleasant15,2965,5672,54153.0Seaside Heights 1,72137017531.7Seaside Park1,46950824351.1Ship Bottom1,11636824655.0South Toms River2,50044332930.9Stafford Township23,0977,6703,28547.4Surf City1,17642326058.1Toms River71,12322,3159,51444.75Tuckerton2,74583933142.6 Click here to get Patch email notifications, or download our app to have breaking news alerts sent right to your phone. Have a news tip? Email [email protected]