Will The Mail-In Factor Sway Today's NJ Primary?

The races to watch in today's primary [View this email in your browser]( [Politics Brief from WNYC + Gothamist] [Keep friends and family informed. Forward the Politics Brief.]( It's Primary Day In New Jersey By [James Ramsay]( [a mailbox in Camden County, New Jersey, with a sign for dropping off absentee ballots] Matt Slocum/AP Given that about 5 million New Jersey voters received absentee ballots for today's state and federal primary, we may not know the final results for weeks. Here's what we do know. High Turnout Is Expected Based on interviews with county election officials, [NJ Spotlight]( determined that about a third of the absentee ballots sent out to voters had already been returned by Monday. County clerks will continue to accept ballots through July 14th (so long as they're postmarked by July 7th), and the final counts are due by July 24th. In addition, 17,000 polling places are open across the state today, with at least one open location in each municipality. If you're planning to vote this evening, check our [New Jersey Primary Voter Guide]( for information about who's on your ballot. A South Jersey Congressional Primary Is Pitting The Democratic Machine Against The Kennedy Machine The defection of Rep. Jeff Van Drew from the Democratic Party to the GOP last December set up [a competitive Democratic primary in the 2nd Congressional District]( which encompasses the bottom tip of the state. One leading candidate is Brigid Callahan Harrison, a Montclair State University politics professor. She has the backing of powerful South Jersey Democrats, including State Senate President Steve Sweeney. Her main challenger is Amy Kennedy, who comes in with name recognition, given that she's married to former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy. New Jersey politics expert Ben Dworkin said the usual benefits of being a machine-endorsed candidate may not apply in this case, in part because many "random registered Democrats" automatically received absentee ballots, and might vote in the primary when they otherwise wouldn't have. Rep. Josh Gottheimer Is Being Challenged From The Left In the 5th Congressional District, which takes up the northwest corner of the state, two-term Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer is facing a primary challenge from a woman who volunteered to help reelect him just two years ago. Arati Kreibich, a medical researcher and Medicare For All supporter who's been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, is arguing that Gottheimer is now out of step with the district, which she says has become more liberal since the 2016 election. Gottheimer, whom Kreibich labeled "[Trump's favorite Democrat]( was rated the second most conservative House member in his party by [govtrack](. In 2016, Gottheimer [flipped the district blue]( by beating a conservative Republican in the general election. At the same time, the 5th District narrowly voted for Donald Trump for president. Hear Live Primary Coverage With Brian Lehrer, Tonight At 8 At 8 p.m. on WNYC, Brian Lehrer will be joined by joined by Nancy Solomon, managing editor of New Jersey Public Radio, and Joe Hernandez, who covers New Jersey politics for WHYY, to discuss today's primary — and to take your calls. [Tune in](. NYC Saw A Record Number Of Absentee Ballots, But Many Of Them Won't Count In the June 23rd primary, New York City residents mailed in more than 389,300 absentee ballots, 17 times more than the absentee ballot count in the 2016 presidential primary. But when the city's Board of Elections begins counting most of those ballots tomorrow — now two weeks after they were cast — a bunch of them will be disqualified. Some ballots will be missing signatures. Others won't be properly dated. In some cases, people who voted by mail then decided to go vote in person during early voting or on Primary Day, thereby nullifying their absentee ballot. But some ballots won't count for a reason completely out of the voter's control: The post office didn't give it a postmark. Unlike in previous elections, voters this year were sent business reply postage paid envelopes, which normally wouldn't get postmarked. But because so many people return their ballots right up until the deadline, the Postal Service said it instructed employees to give all these envelopes a postmark. And reports have already come in that this isn't happening in all cases. "If the ballot actually arrived by the 23rd of June, then that itself is proof [it was mailed on time] and those would be valid ballots," said election lawyer Sarah Steiner. "But if you mailed it on the 23rd or the 22nd or the 20th or whatever, but it didn't get postmarked, I am concerned that the Board will invalidate those absentee ballots, from no fault of the voter." City election officials declined to say how many ballots they've received that were missing a postmark. ([Gothamist]( Democrats Could Gain Five State Senate Seats In Western New York In the Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse regions, five Republican State Senate incumbents are not running for reelection this fall, and Democrats are confident they can flip those seats and further their majority in the chamber. (Sen. Robert Antonacci, who represented parts of Syracuse, stepped down earlier this year after winning a seat on the State Supreme Court, leaving the district momentarily [without a representative]( Though these districts have recently been in GOP hands, registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in all of them. City & State explains that the outgoing senators — four of whom used to be Democrats themselves — were either outsized personalities, came from family legacies, or had unique abilities to appeal to non-Republicans. In other words, these are not currently conservative strongholds. If Democrats add just two seats to their current total in the senate, they'll have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature. That, in turn, would give the party full control over [the next redistricting process]( and allow them to redraw district lines in a way that'll give them electoral advantages for years to come. For now, though, Democrats recognize that even without gerrymandering, they have a strong presence in a region not previously thought of as New York's hotbed of liberalism. "Some of these districts, by the numbers, are even [more Democratic] than the seats we hold," said Queens Sen. Michael Gianaris. ([City & State]( Julián Castro's Common Census Following his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro has turned his attention to the 2020 Census. "The census is the number one way that resources are determined for communities across this country, from how much investment your child's school is going to get to whether that road that you've been complaining about that needs to be expanded is going to get the attention it deserves," Castro said. "All of those things are profoundly impacted by whether you're willing to stand up and be counted by filling out that census form." In this season finale of Come Through With Rebecca Carroll, Castro said he understands the concerns about sharing personal information with the government — particularly for people in the country without legal status. But he insists that it's both safe and in the best interest of disadvantaged communities to fill out the census. "When I was secretary of Housing and Urban Development for President Obama, the number one way that a lot of these programs were decided — in terms of how many dollars were going to go into a community to address homelessness or to fix housing stock or to help fix roads — was through those numbers in the census," he said. "So I saw that it can make a difference in lifting up the prospects of everyday Americans out there. And there are no communities that need it more than Black and Brown communities that are already suffering in so many different ways." Castro also spoke with Carroll about the increasing diversity of the U.S. population, why this is a country he's optimistic about, and what compelled him to run for president. [HEAR THE FULL CONVERSATION]( [the logo for Brian Lehrer's politics podcast] Newt Yesterday, Statues Today In this episode, we look at the distant, and not-so-distant past in the context of today's Republican Party and the confederate statues being torn down around the country. Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [Donate]( Copyright © 2020 New York Public Radio, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: New York Public Radio 160 Varick Street New York, NY 10013 [unsubscribe]( [update preferences]( [privacy policy](