Gloucester re-elects Democratic freeholders

Three Democratic freeholders in Gloucester County have won re-election.

With 175,525 ballots counted and at most 1,240 provisional ballots left outstanding, Freeholder Lyman Barnes leads Republican challenger Nick DeSilvio by 1,856 votes, 84,203-82,347.

The two other Democratic incumbents, Jim Jefferson (84,918) and Heather Simmons (88,315) hold wider leads over the Republican challenger and his running mates, Chris Konawel (81,292) and Greenwich Mayor George Shivery (79,959).

The victory means Democrats will continue to enjoy complete control over county government in Gloucester.

It’s not clear whether the remaining provisional ballots will be counted. They may have been disqualified for a variety of reasons, including a chance that a given voter already returned a mail-in ballot.

In any case, the remaining ballots are not enough to close the gap between Barnes and DeSilvio.