Murphy says he’s open to ‘creative ideas’ to solve low runoff turnout

Asked today about very low turnout in yesterday’s municipal runoff elections, where only around 12% of voters in Jersey City and Hillside showed up to the polls, Gov. Phil Murphy indicated that he was open to innovative solutions.

“That level of participation is unacceptably low. So count me in for any creative ideas that would get participation up,” the governor said. “We want to find more ways to make it easier to vote.”

But Murphy appeared unaware of the particulars of the runoffs yesterday, and also said he had “nothing new” to report on Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick)’s bill to implement ranked-choice voting, which would prevent low-turnout runoffs.

On a third voting-related matter – a potential recount of a bond issue in the South Hunterdon Regional School District – Murphy said he’s not familiar with the case, even though a state deputy attorney general is opposing the recount. The office of the attorney general declined a request for comment.