Credit: (Hannah Gross/NJ Spotlight News)
Outside the Washington Township Senior Citizens Center in Gloucester County, worries over inflation and property taxes were just some of the issues that were on Annamaria DiStefano’s mind as she left the polls on Tuesday night.
“I have no children in school and the school taxes are the highest in this township — that’s what really concerns me,” said DiStefano, 68, who has been a resident of Washington Township since 1971.
At the other end of the state in Sparta, it was a contentious school board race that drew Alex Fox to vote on Tuesday.
“It’s in my interest wherever I live to make sure that we have a good school system that’s teaching properly and not going crazy,” he said. “I want to see them focusing on actual education and not political hot-button issues of the day.”
More than a million people in New Jersey cast ballots for state, county and local offices. Interviews with more than a dozen voters on Tuesday found the reasons for their picks as varied as the voters themselves.
Local school board issues
Much was made statewide of very local school board issues, where so-called culture wars sparked angry debates and spurred voters to the polls for their communities’ school leaders. But broader issues like taxes, gun control, and climate change — that have proven instrumental on the state and national level as well — also were on the minds of voters in this election cycle.
Credit: (Bobby Brier/NJ Spotlight News)In Lindenwold, Kenyetta Myles was concerned about abortion rights, among other matters, an issue that was significant in elections nationwide.
“If for any reason… I didn’t want to have a baby, I should have that right,” said the mother of four. “I don’t think that they should be able to make that decision for me.”
Gun control and background checks are important, too, according to Myles. “If it takes thirty days, forty-five days to do a thorough check, then I think that needs to happen,” she said.
But school issues were indeed top of mind for many.
Listening to teachers
In the northwest section of the state, several voters in Sparta and nearby Roxbury said they cared most about the race for their local school boards, not the state Legislature that was at the top of the ballot.
School boards in both towns have recently supported book challenges and taken steps to remove protections for LGBTQ+ students, making them two of the most extreme school boards in the state. Voters in these towns named the schools as the most pressing issue this election cycle.
The conservative ticket pushing “parental rights” won a narrow victory in Roxbury, while the “Stop Raising Taxes” slate defeated the “Voice of Reason” parental-rights ticket in Sparta.
In October, Sparta’s teachers union passed a no-confidence vote against five school board members, two of whom were up for reelection. Both lost their seats on Tuesday.
Thomas Blake, who graduated from Sparta High School in 2018, said he trusts the teachers’ judgment and opposed the board members who were the subject of the no-confidence vote.
Jared Chiariello, another 2018 graduate, said he was supporting Chad Wood, a 2023 Sparta High School graduate. Chiariello and Blake said they were excited to have someone on the board who can understand young people. Wood won his race as part of the “Stop Raising Taxes” slate.
Chiariello also said he was concerned by the school board’s recent decision to remove a policy aimed at protecting transgender students in schools. “That’s going to get them sued,” he said.
Chiariello said even just the term “parental rights” is confusing.
“If I see someone saying, ‘go parents’ rights,’ I’m immediately skeptical,” Chiariello said. “On paper, no one is going to disagree with that. On paper no one is going to disagree with the ‘Voices of Reason’ but what does that translate to?”
‘Empowering parents’
Grace Gilmore, another voter in Sparta, said schools and education were big issues for her as well.
“I’m going to be voting for the team that is empowering parents and welcoming parent participation,” Gilmore said, noting her support for the “Voices of Reason” slate.
Several voters said it has become increasingly difficult to determine a candidate’s actual position, since everyone claims to support student learning and providing students with the resources they need.
Fox said it can also be difficult to decipher what a slate’s slogan means, noting that to him, the “Voices of Reason” slate is the opposite of what the name implies. He said taxes, funding and infrastructure are also important issues for him.
“If I stay home, I’ve got no reason to complain,” Fox said.
Credit: (Hannah Gross/NJ Spotlight News)Another voter, Pat Schutz said the school board race in Sparta brought her to the polls on Election Day.
“I would like the schools to be a kind and welcoming place for all students. Minority students have a hard life ahead of them and for schools to be prejudiced against such students is despicable,” Schutz said.
Confusing issues
Speaking outside her polling place in Roxbury, Pat Hamilton said the school issues have become very confusing. She said she feels like the only Democrat in town and has no one to discuss politics with.
Hamilton said she wasn’t sure which school board candidates to vote for when she entered her polling place because the slogans “Kids First” and “Back to Basics” didn’t tell her everything she needed to know.
“I didn’t want to push the wrong one,” Hamilton said. “I hope I voted for the right group of people.”
She said she especially opposes recent attacks on Roxbury High School librarian Roxana Caivano, who fought five book challenges since the start of the past school year. Caivano has said she was the victim of personal attacks at board meetings and on social media, which made it difficult for her to go to work every day.
“I want people to back off and let the teachers teach,” Hamilton said, noting that two of her daughters are teachers.
Yet it wasn’t just school issues on voters’ minds.
Guns, abortion
In Monroe Township, which is part of the 4th Legislative District, voters spoke about national and state issues as they left the polls at Williamstown Middle School.
One cited gun control as a foremost issue, and specifically New Jersey’s controversial conceal-carry law. And there were shades of the contentious 2020 presidential election being a factor, too, as well as what’s to come in 2024.
“New Jersey should be a concealed-carry state,” said Anthony Porter, 52, who lives in the 4th District.
“I’m voting straight Republican,” he said. “I didn’t trust the last election, and so I wanted to get out and vote.”
Other voters at Williamstown Middle School, including Bruce Monastersky, stressed that social issues like abortion and gay rights were important.
‘…making sure that those taxes are spent normally, and responsibly and fiscally sound, that’s really what I look for.’ — Edward Sokolowski, registered independent voter, Berlin
“There are some more conservative areas of the state, but generally this is a more maybe liberal-minded area, supporting certain social issues,” said Monastersky, 63, of Williamstown.
“And the environment is important. I think that doesn’t really get as much attention as it should,” he said.
Still, for Edward Sokolowski, a registered independent in Berlin, it came down to taxes and government spending.
“You can live where you need to live,” he said. “But making sure that those taxes are spent normally, and responsibly and fiscally sound, that’s really what I look for.”
As for abortion rights issues, Sokolowski said he was raised Catholic, and his faith tells him that “abortion is bad.”
“But at the same time, it’s not my job to tell someone what they can and can’t do with their body,” he said. “I wouldn’t want it for anybody that I know, but at the same time, it’s their choice.”
