Live Election Updates

Throughout election day, Barnegat Patch will be hitting the polls and talking to voters and officials. We'll also keep you updated on any hiccups at the polling places. Keep checking out this story after the polls close at 8 p.m. to get live results.

Are you voting today? What's the scene like at the polls? Tell us below in the comments section.

9:18 p.m. update: Results are in, and the incumbents keep their seats in a very close race. Check out the vote tallies from the county , and stay tuned for more details.

8:55 p.m. update: Nearing the end. With 11 of 14 districts reporting, Democrats Len Morano and Mike Howard still have a lead of just a couple of percentage points over their Republican rivals. Howard Effron currently has 5 percent of the vote.

8:40 p.m. update: Halfway mark with results. Democrats are still holding onto a narrow lead.

8:27 p.m. update: With three of 14 districts reporting, Democrats Len Morano and Mike Howard now have a slim lead, with about 25 and 24 percent of the votes, respectively.

8:15 p.m. update: Only a fraction of the township's votes are in and posted on the county site – just the results of absentee ballots so far, which amounts to 798 votes – but the early leaders are Republicans Marty Lisella and Maxine Blumenthal. Each have 30 percent of the vote so far.

8 p.m. update: Polls are closed! Stay with us over the next hour and a half or so as we wait for results. We'll post the tally from the township as soon as officials send it out, but we've also got an eye on the county election results website.

6:45 p.m. update: With less than an hour and a half to go before the polls close, a last wave of voters are casting ballots.

Barbara and Ron Cannella of Barnegat Boulevard South headed to their polling place at the Lillian M. Dunfee school not long after dark. Both said they chose Democrats in the local municipal race, in part because incumbent Len Morano and his running mate Mike Howard emphasized bringing more recreation options to kids and an increased police presence in their part of town.

Both said they voted yes on the state question on whether to legalize sports betting. 

"I feel like any money coming into the state is good," Barbara Cannella said. Her husband agreed.

"If people are going to gamble, they're going to gamble," he said.

5:20 p.m. update: Carol Cooper of Pheasant Run voted at her senior community's clubhouse this afternoon, and said she stuck with a Republican ticket – just as she's done since her 30s. 

"I believe in smaller government," she said, and she thinks Republicans do a better job at keeping spending down on all levels of government.

Cooper said she felt the expectation that the township's senior population will largely support the local Republican candidates rang true in her community, where most people she knows are supporting incumbent Martin Lisella and runningmate Maxine Blumenthal. She thought that support would help the Republicans carry the day.

A big part of the reason is taxes, she said. 

"Especially here, where people are on fixed incomes, I think that's a big issue," Cooper said.

2:45 p.m. update: Reports from around town indicate it's a pretty quiet day at the polls. 

Poll worker Lisa Becker, a Democratic Club member and Barnegat Board of Education president, said some voters may still be confused by the recent relocation of district polling sites. 

"It's somewhat frustrating for some people," she said, especially those who didn't come out to vote in April's school board election or the June primary and might not have been aware of the shifts until they showed up at the wrong spot.

Workers aren't seeing the kind of crowds that come out in a presidential election year, said Becker, but plenty of residents are showing up to cast their votes. 

"It was a little slow in the morning, but it's started to pick up," she said.

1 p.m. update: Residents from township voting districts 1 and 11 are steadily trickling into Barnegat High School to cast their votes. 

Carole MacBlain of East Bay Avenue said she’s never missed an election since she started voting at age 21. She takes voting seriously, she said – "I vote for dogcatcher" – and the low turnout at municipal elections is disappointing.

“People complain about things, but they don’t go to the voting booth,” she said.

MacBlain and her husband Tom voted for Democrats straight down the ticket, they said.

“I think they’ll be able to shake things up a little bit,” Tom MacBlain said. The couple said they’re concerned that rateables have been falling in Barnegat while spending continues to rise.

“This town has been run by Republicans since 1976, and the way they spend money is absolutely ridiculous,” said Carole MacBlain.

10 a.m. update: Polls have been open for four hours now, and Township Clerk Sharon Auer said there have been no reports of problems at any of Barnegat's nine polling places.

Where will the candidates be when the polls close? Republicans Marty Lisella and Maxine Blumenthal will await what they hope will be a victory at downtown. Len Morano and Mike Howard will join fellow Democrats at . Independent Howard Effron said if a victory is in the cards for him, he'll hold a party at Doyle's Pour House on Route 9.