Matawan GOP Candidate Faults Murphy For Election Results Delay

MATAWAN, NJ — As of late Wednesday afternoon, Matawan's current Council members Deana Gunn and Stephanie Buckel, Democrats, are still in the lead to win re-election this year.

However, there are still 150,000 to 200,000 votes that have not been counted, according to County Clerk Christine Hanlon, meaning it is too early to establish a winner in any race in Monmouth County.

The Matawan Republican challenger, Anissa Esposito, criticized this year's voting process. She said Gov. Murphy's mandate to vote by mail slowed down ballot counting across the state.

"The fact that voters in most of New Jersey, will not know the final results of our elections for at least several more days is unconscionable," said Esposito. "We are frustrated with the Governor’s mostly vote-by-mail mandate, which stripped voters of their fundamental right to go into a private voting booth, cast their vote and learn the results on Election Day."

"This flawed mandate also caused undue (strain) on voters, strain on the USPS and our County Board of Elections. We applaud the incredible work of our County Clerk Christine Hanlon and the Board of Elections to meet this unprecedented challenge. We are especially grateful to all of the people working to process hundreds of thousands of ballots as carefully and quickly as possible. We remain cautiously optimistic as we await the final results later this week."

County Clerk Hanlon, also a Republican, said she and a bipartisan coalition of county clerks told Murphy earlier this year they disagreed with his vote-by-mail mandate.

"I'm still very upset that the governor did that, and I think most voters were upset by the mandate," Hanlon told Patch. "Because we're not going to have results for weeks. The change caused a massive strain on the infrastructure and it was a strain on resources. If we were on machines it would have been done already."

Matawan boro Council results as of 4:06 p.m Wednesday:

Deana GUNN, Democrat, 1,436 votes

Stephanie BUCKEL, Democrat, 1,419 votes

Anissa Esposito, Republican, 940 votes

Joe Saggese, Republican, 913 votes

Related: More Than 40 Percent Of Monmouth County's Votes Still Not Counted