Camden Dems building huge lead in vote-by-mail ballots

Camden County voters have cast nearly 7,000 vote-by-mail ballots so far, creating the possibility that the VBM totals will exceed the machine vote for the first time.

Sources with knowledge of the VBM tallies say that the Camden County Democratic organization is accumulating enormous pluralities in areas where their candidates face off-the-line challenges from a progressive slate.

In the race for county clerk, incumbent Joseph Ripa is winning VBMs with nearly 95% of the vote.  In Cherry Hill, Freeholder Susan Shin-Angulo has about 84% of the vote in her bid for the Democratic mayoral nomination.   VBM numbers in other areas of the county, where there are local and county committee contests, show the organization with a lead of almost 7-1.

Nearly 90 candidates allied with South Jersey Progressives have filed to challenge the organization led since 1989 by George Norcross.  This is the largest challenge to the machine since then-Rep. Jim Florio led a full-scale political war to seize control of the Camden County Democratic organization in 1979.  Norcross ran that campaign.

These numbers are unofficial, and counting will continue through the day.  Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked today will be accepted by the Board of Elections until Thursday.

Editor’s Note: The New Jersey Globe will reference early vote-by-mail percentages from sources with direct knowledge of the count, but will not publish actual numbers until after the polls have closed.