Voter Turnout 'Relatively Light' For Primary

With uncontested races in the township and borough, and Mitt Romney accruing enough delegates for the Republican presidential nomination, polls were a little quiet on Tuesday for primary voting.

The township candidates are Republicans Bruce Sisler and H. Scott Rosenbush and Democrats Ron Goldberg and Noel Robinson, who are competing for two open seats on the Township Committee in the November general election.

In the borough, the candidates are Republicans Laurie Fu and Joseph Cecala Jr., who are running unapposed for two open seats on the Borough Council. No Democrats entered the race this year.

Mary Jane Melo, one of the poll workers for District 20 in Morris Township, said it was a pretty slow day, but nothing less than what she expected.

"It was relatively light," Melo said,"probably because most states voted already for the presidential candidate."

Residents from District 20 voted at , and as of 5:30 p.m., there were 76 total votes cast.

Also at the school were District 18 voters, who had 78 votes at the time. Workers in that district also said they were not suprised at the rate of voters coming in.

Districts 8, 9 and 10 voted at the , and workers there also found the voting to be very light.

All three of those districts each had about 100 votes as of 6 p.m. Gene Ferrari, one of the workers for District 10, said that the primaries are normally like this, but when the November election comes around, there will be lines out the door. Ferrari said throughout the day he didn't notice any rushes, and it remained stable throughout.

Carol Pierce was one of the voters in District 10. Pierce is new to Morris Township after moving from Summit, and said she believes local taxes are the biggest thing to focus on.

"We're all paying ridiculous taxes to support duplicity of services, they're driving everyone out of the state," she said. "I left Summit because my taxes were higher."

Pierce voted Republican, and came out today to have her voice heard.

"I think we should all vote, we're all citizens," Piece said. "We can't sit back and say our vote doesn't matter, because our vote does matter."

Jack Guren, 65, also voted Republican and came out to vote in the primary mainly because of all the freeholder options. Guren also said he believes taxes are most important to focus on.

In Morris Plains, all of the districts voted at the . Although the workers declined to comment, several residents spoke about their votes.

Susan DeSaro, 66, said she mainly came out to vote because of the economy. She said she wants to see a change from stores closing and from people out of work. DeSaro has lived in the borough for 31 years, and thinks that the most important local issues are education and keeping taxes down.

Chaz Richards, 59, also voted in the borough, and he said he was originally undecided about whether to vote, but ultimately decided to come out.

"I just wanted to make sure that my vote is heard," Richards said.

Votes will be posted late Tuesday night.