Monmouth Expects To Finish Counting Election Ballots Thursday

MONMOUTH COUNTY - At just under 400,000 ballots received, the Monmouth County Board of Elections now reports that it is almost finished counting for the general election, and that the election is expected to be certified by the end of the week.

“We have very few ballots [left] to count,” confirmed Allan C. Roth Esq., secretary and commissioner of the Monmouth County Board of Elections, in an email to Patch. “The outstanding ballots are those that are attached to the cure responses and we are receiving cure letters until 3:00 pm today [Wednesday]. We are planning to finish the count today, but no later than tomorrow morning.”

“We are certifying the election on Friday, November 20th, provided that the County Clerk has the papers ready. We are still working on the write-ins," he added.

Roth previously told Patch that the Board of Elections has a “hard” deadline of Nov. 20 to certify.

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon previously estimated that the number of provisional and machine votes in the county is low, with most voters opting to vote by mail.

"What I'm seeing and what I'm happy about is that it seems the provisional ballot count is going to be low," she told Patch earlier this month.

As of Wednesday, Nov. 18, approximately 99 percent of mail-in ballots received before election night have been processed, along with approximately 53 percent of ADA Machine Ballots and approximately 94 percent of provisional ballots, according to the Monmouth County voting website.

The returns so far show Trump leading in Monmouth County and Republicans Lillian Burry and Ross Licitra leading over Democrats Michael Penna and Moira Nelson for Freeholders. Hanlon, who is also running for reelection this year, maintains a comfortable lead over Democratic opponent Angela Ahbez-Anderson.

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