Should Mt. Laurel Township move its municipal council elections away from the November general election?
For the members of Mt. Laurel Township Council, there are varying opinions on the matter.
The discussion began at this week’s Mt. Laurel Township Council meeting, when resident Doug Dickel shared his belief that municipal council elections should be moved away from November, where they currently could fall on the same ballot as elections related to boards of education, referendums, county-wide seats, the state legislature, governor, Congress and the presidency.
If municipal elections were moved from November, Dickel argued voters could better focus on issues related directly to Mt. Laurel Township when voting for members of town council.
“It’s to better understand the issues, to better understand the candidates who are running, to better understand the qualifications and where they stand on issues, so that our electorate can make a well-informed decision for town council,” Dickel said.
Agreeing with Dickel at the meeting was Republican Deputy Mayor Linda Bobo, who said she also supported moving council elections, if possible.
Bobo said she believed local elections were becoming increasingly aligned with national politics, which she believed has “no relevance” to local issues.
“It really saddens me, because I always prided Mt. Laurel on not aligning itself with this stuff,” Bobo said.
Regarding the discussion, Mt. Laurel Township Solicitor George Morris said he had never examined the process of moving a municipal election from the November ballot, but said he would investigate the matter further.
New Jersey law allows for municipalities to hold their municipal elections concurrent with the general election in November or on the second Tuesday in May.
However, May elections must be structured as strictly non-partisan affairs, meaning candidates cannot run under the platform of a given political party.
Also speaking on the issue at this week’s meeting was resident Harriette Cohen, who asked council to consider the added cost of holding a separate election outside of November and the potential low turnout from voters.
“I know it’s hard enough to get people to vote in midterm elections and fire elections and past school board elections,” Cohen said.
This year actually saw Mt. Laurel Fire District No. 1 take advantage of a new state law allowing the fire district to move its election from the third Saturday in February to the November general ballot, with fire district officials saying the move came in part due to years of low turnout among voters in the district’s annual February elections.
In response to questions from The Sun, Mt. Laurel Township manager Meredith Tomczyk said she would need to contact Burlington County to determine the exact cost of holding a municipal election outside of the November general election. Tomczyk did not respond further by press time.
Of related note, officials with Mt. Laurel Township Schools say the district spent between $14,000 and $15,000 to hold its recent special referendum election in October — an election that operated with the same 10 polling places used by the township in general elections.
However, the school district’s election only had polling places open from noon to 8 p.m., while the general election keeps polling places open even longer, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Mt. Laurel Township is also not the first municipality in the area to recently have an elected official call for examining the idea of moving municipal elections to the spring.
Evesham Township’s former Republican Mayor Randy Brown raised the issue after his party’s defeat in the latest November general election, which saw control of Evesham Township switch to a new Democratic majority.
That same election saw Democrats gain two seats on Mt. Laurel Township Council, as well take control of Moorestown Township Council, the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Burlington County Clerk’s Office.
Although Brown himself was not on the ballot, Brown made comments to The Sun in which he tied the defeat of his fellow local Republicans in the area to voters who were focused on national issues, as opposed to issues under the control of local elected officials.
Brown pointed to the unpopularity of President Donald Trump among some voters and voters’ anger at congressional votes taken by former Republican Rep. Tom MacArthur (NJ-3) — votes such as MacArthur’s support for Republicans’ failed attempt to loosen health-care protections in the Affordable Care Act and MacArthur being the sole congressional representative from New Jersey to vote for federal tax overhaul that installed a $10,000 federal cap on the SALT (state and local tax) deduction used by many residents in New Jersey.
In response to Brown’s suggestions, officials with the Evesham Township Democratic Party said Brown was blaming constituents for the electoral loss of Republicans and accused him of potentially “suppressing” voter turnout by considering a change to the timing of local elections.
Ultimately, Evesham took no action on the issue.
In response to the discussion at this week’s council meeting, The Sun asked Mt. Laurel Township Council’s two recently elected Democrats, Stephen Steglik and Kareem Pritchett, if they believed a move of Mt. Laurel’s municipal election away from November could have the added effect of helping one party or hurting another in future local elections.
Steglik did not comment on that potential aspect of the issue, instead only saying that moving council elections from November to another time of year would be “incredibly wasteful.”
“Taxpayers would be using their hard-earned money to pay for two separate elections, one of which is completely unnecessary, while the majority of our residents may not even know the election was moved,” Steglik said. “We need to think of ways to engage residents in a more productive and fiscally responsible way, not futile proposals such as this.”
Pritchett, while also pointing to the added cost of holding a separate election for seats on council, did say he believed moving the election would be an “attempt to control the outcome of the election.”
Pritchett looked to the 2016 election, in which he unsuccessfully ran for a seat on council against Bobo, current Republican Mayor Kurt Folcher and current Republican Councilman Irwin Edelson.
“I don’t recall a request to change the council election back then. Fast forward to November 2018, Stephen Steglik and myself win the two seats, and now there’s a request to have a special election for council,” Pritchett said. “This request raises a lot of questions. Is it that two Democrats are on council, is it that there is an African-American on the council, or a combination of both?”
The Sun also reached out to the three Republican’s currently seated on town council to ask for additional comments on the potential of moving council elections from November, as well as if they believed holding municipal elections outside of November could potentially help or hurt one political party versus another.
Folcher said that since the issue of moving elections was just brought up for the first time at this week’s meeting, he could not yet provide any assessment of the issue without having more details.
“The township solicitor was directed to look into the matter and to report back on what election options Mt. Laurel has and how to implement any change,” Folcher said.
Similar to her comments at this week’s meeting, Bobo reiterated her stance that of the people she knows in Mt. Laurel, many are “sick of the hyper-partisanship” associated with the November general election.
“Mt. Laurel’s local election should be about Mt. Laurel not about whether you hate President Trump or hate Gov. Murphy,” Bobo said. “Local politics really has nothing to do with being a Republican or Democrat; it is about supporting our community.”
For Edelson, who noted he comes from a family of Independent, Republican and Democratic voters, he said almost 40 percent of Mt. Laurel residents are unaffiliated or Independent, and therefore cannot participate in partisan primaries and remain “stuck in November” with the choices made by the two major parties.
With that in mind, Edelson said he would like to explore what options the township has available in potentially moving municipal elections.
“I assume the two party machines wouldn’t like the change, since they won’t be able to get their uninformed voters to blindly vote party line,” Edelson said. “This change would give all Mt. Laurel residents a say and allow residents that aren’t affiliated with one of the major parties to run for council and have a chance of winning.”
Mt. Laurel Township Council’s next meeting is scheduled for March 25 at 7 p.m. at the Mt. Laurel Township Municipal Building.
