Voter turnout varied in Tuesday’s school district referendums

Ten of the state’s school districts went to the polls on Tuesday to vote in school district referendums, of which nine were approved; the exception was in Hoboken, the most prominent referendum of the day.

But on a blustery January day, the 10 districts achieved highly varying turnout rates, with one town exceeding 30% turnout – a remarkable number for an off-cycle school election – and others failing to hit 10%.

Cresskill voters were the state’s most energized, with 31% of the borough’s 6,186 voters arriving at the polls to overwhelmingly approve $21.6 million in funding to repair the middle and high school building, which was slammed by Hurricane Ida last year. Since the hurricane, Cresskill’s teenagers have been forced to learn remotely most of the week because of the damage to the school, so it’s not hugely surprising that 88% of voters voted for the funding.

Hoboken, the largest school district by far to hold an election on Tuesday, also saw comparatively high turnout, at 19% of its 43,223 registered voters. But voters there were not sold on the referendum, which would have funneled $241 million towards the construction of a new high school, and rejected it 65-35%.

Four other school districts also saw turnout of 10% or higher: Mendham Township (20%), Princeton (14%), Clinton-Glen Gardner (12%), and Lower Cape May Regional (10%), all of which approved their respective referendums. 9% of voters in both Manville and Westampton turned out to vote in their successful referendums.

Finally, at the bottom of the pile were Franklin Lakes and Lindenwold, which both saw only 7% turnout. Of Franklin Lakes’ 10,291 voters, 747 turned up at the polls; of Lindenwold’s 11,973, 860 voted. Both referendums were successful, so Franklin Lakes will spend $21 million, and Lindenwold $33 million, based on the votes of a tiny percentage of the two towns’ voters.

When asked earlier this week about low turnout in off-cycle special elections, Gov. Phil Murphy said that he was “open-minded to any consideration” about how to increase voter participation, including the possibility of moving special elections so they coincide with other higher-turnout elections.