May 11 election to be in-person, not by mail

NJ Governor Phil Murphy announced on Monday (February 8) that this year’s May municipal elections would be held in person, rather than by mail, as was the case for the 2020 general election last November.

During his daily news conference, he said:

“Today we are announcing that … the municipal nonpartisan elections scheduled for May 11th will be conducted in person. As always, voters will have the ability to request a vote-by-mail ballot for any reason. We will ensure that all in-person polling places adhere to proper health and safety protocols including face coverings, social distancing, and frequent sanitation.

“We are able to take this step as our COVID numbers are headed — I emphasize headed — in the right direction and we are optimistic that these trends will continue, especially as more residents get vaccinated and the weather also becomes warmer. This is very different than the situation we confronted last summer, when we had to make a decision on the November election, knowing that our models showed a huge surge of COVID cases in the fall, which unfortunately, came to pass. While we are not making a decision on the June primary elections at this point, we are optimistic that we’ll be able to conduct in-person voting in June as well.”