TOMS RIVER – Dozens of people lined the sidewalk outside the Ocean County Board of Elections building on Hooper Avenue before a recent meeting, holding signs calling for a mail-in ballot drop box at Ocean County College. Supporters said the campus location would make voting more convenient for students and others who regularly visit the college.
Four Ocean County Board of Elections commissioners considered the proposed drop box at their meeting. Democrat commissioners Wyatt Earp and Jeff Horn supported the location, while Republican commissioners George R. Gilmore, the board chairman, and Justin Flancbaum opposed it.
Earp and Flancbaum participated by telephone. Because neither was in the room, Horn made a point at the beginning of the meeting to describe the turnout for the drop-box discussion. “There are about 60 or 70 eager citizens here, eager voters here,” Horn said, later referring to the gathering as an “enthusiastic audience.”
Earp and Horn voted in favor of the college location. Gilmore and Flancbaum voted against it. The resulting 2-2 tie left the proposal without the majority needed to pass. There are only four members of the board, and it is made up of two Republicans and two Democrats by law.
League Pushed For Campus Drop Box
The proposal grew out of an effort by the League of Women Voters to reach younger voters while making another drop box available to the broader public.
Patti Russo, one of the voter services chairs for the League of Women Voters in Ocean County, said members regularly visit Ocean County College to register voters. The League is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose political parties or candidates.
“The League has been visiting the college campus for about three years, twice a year, multiple days at a time, registering students to vote,” Russo said. “So, the drop box was a natural extension in my mind. We’re trying to expand voter rights and defend democracy.”
The proposed box would not have been reserved for students. Any Ocean County voter could have deposited a completed mail-in ballot there.
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University reported that 47 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 participated in the 2024 presidential election. By comparison, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 65.3 percent of the overall voting-age population cast ballots that year.
In a July 8 letter to the Board of Elections, Ocean County College President Dr. Pamela Monaco offered her full support for a drop box on the college’s main campus. “We believe a ballot drop box on campus will be a valuable resource for our campus community and Ocean County residents while reinforcing our shared commitment to civic participation and accessible elections.”
Are Drop Boxes Required?
Before voting, the commissioners considered whether New Jersey law required a drop box at the community college or simply gave the commissioners the discretion to approve one.
Board of Elections Supervisor Jason Varano read relevant language from a book used by the board. “Any municipal government building in which the main office of the municipal clerk is located in municipalities with populations larger than 5,000 residents; the main campus of a county community college; the main campus of a state college or university; and the main campus of an independent four-year college or university with enrollments larger than 5,000 students,” Varano read.
Horn said it appeared to be “a matter of linguistics.” In his reading, the semicolons made “the main campus of a county community college” stand as its own category, separate from the requirement that a municipality have more than 5,000 residents.
The wording Horn relied upon was not the only language at issue. Gilmore pointed out that the statute was amended in 2021, when the Democratic-controlled Legislature removed county community colleges from the list of locations where drop boxes are required.
Gilmore argued that the omission was intentional. He said lawmakers had deliberately removed the community college requirement, leaving the decision to add one to the county’s four election commissioners.
The words “the main campus of a county community college” remain elsewhere in the statute, but in a provision concerning certain boxes installed near police stations before the 2021 law took effect. They are not part of the current list of mandatory locations.
Gilmore said his opposition was not based solely on the statute. He also saw no practical need for another drop box.
“Because there’s no need for it. That’s why,” Gilmore said. “Everybody that goes there commutes one way or another. They’re going to pass various locations where you can early vote, and they certainly can pass a location where they can vote.”
He questioned the number of ballots one person could place inside a drop box. Someone delivering ballots directly to election officials must identify themselves and comply with limits on authorized bearers, he said. New Jersey law generally limits a bearer to ballots from three voters, or when the voters are immediate family members living in the same household. “But you can go to a drop box and put all 10 in that drop box,” Gilmore said. “So, explain to me why that’s fair. Why is there such an inconsistency?”
When comparisons were made to college drop boxes in other jurisdictions, Gilmore responded. “I don’t care what other states do,” he said.
His remarks drew interruptions and challenges from the audience. Among them, was Rachel Peace, the Democrat candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 4th District opposing longtime Congressman Chris Smith. Peace argued that community college students often have less flexibility than students living at four-year schools.
“People that go to a county college are going to a county college for affordability and work at least one other job, as well as going to school,” Peace said. “So, they don’t have as much time as someone who is on a campus somewhere all day going to school.”
Peace also raised concerns about relying on the mail to return completed ballots. “With everything that’s going on with the U.S. Postal Service right now, there are going to be a lot of people who are afraid to put their ballot in the mail and are going to need to rely on a drop box,” she said. “And there aren’t that many around.”
Tie Ends Debate For Now
Peace’s question did not change the outcome. The two Democrats voted in favor and the two Republicans voted against, leaving it without the majority required for approval.
Neither the statute, the state drop-box guide nor the board materials reviewed appear to provide a procedure for breaking a tie over adding a discretionary location. State law allows the county clerk to cast a deciding vote in one limited circumstance, when a county board deadlocks over selecting a secondary location for two drop boxes less than 2,000 feet apart. That provision does not appear to apply here.
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