Updated, 9 p.m. Tuesday
MANCHESTER, NJ — Polls have closed across New Jersey and the votes are being counted.
That includes in Manchester Township, where voters are choosing a mayor, a council member and three members of the Board of Education.
Manchester's mayor and Township Council are nonpartisan.
There are three candidates seeking the four-year term as mayor: Kenneth Seda, Joseph T. Hankins and Mariah L. Prokop.
Tallies of early voting and vote-by-mail ballots received so far had Hankins with 3,784, Seda with 2,307 and Prokop with 1,530.
Hankins was appointed mayor after Robert Arace stepped down to accept the seat on the Ocean County Board of Commissioners, then won the remaining year of Arace's term. He is seeking his first full term. Seda ran for mayor against Arace in 2022. Prokop is a realtor with Defelice Realty Group and a lifelong Manchester resident.
The Manchester Township Council race is uncontested. There are two, three-year terms and two candidates: Sandra L. Gravatt-Drake, who is seeking re-election, and Judith L. Noonan, who is seeking her first term on the Manchester council. Noonan, recently appointed to the council, served on the council in Berkeley Township before moving to Manchester several years ago.
There are three, three-year terms up for election on the school board. Incumbents Laura Wingler and Gloria Adkinson are joined by PaulaAnn Fazio under the slogan Putting Kids First. They are opposed by incumbent Timothy Poss, who is running with Paula Nowakowski and Steven Giordano under the slogan Manchester Kids First.
Wingler was leading with 3,846, Adkinson had 3,463, Fazio had 3,455, Giordano with 2,405, Nowakowski with 2,208, and Poss with 2,188.
Vote totals remain unofficial until certified by the Ocean County Clerk's Office later in November.
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