How Lakewood And Jackson Voted, From Booker And Smith To Local Races

Lakewood and Jackson delivered sharply different Senate results Tuesday, but both gave Rep. Chris Smith large margins. In the local races, Lakewood voters favored candidates from both major parties, while Elliott Shem-Tov led Jackson’s three-way mayoral contest.

These figures reflect the county’s November 3, 10:45 p.m. results update. They are not certified results. All 47 Lakewood districts and 34 Jackson districts were reporting, but that does not mean every ballot has been counted.

See TLS’s full election-night coverage here.

Lakewood’s total included 13,449 Election Day ballots, 3,945 early ballots and 5,162 mail ballots. Jackson counted 11,642 Election Day ballots, 7,656 early ballots and 4,115 mail ballots. Jackson’s early-voting total was nearly twice Lakewood’s.

District turnout varied widely. Lakewood District 31 had the highest counted-ballot rate, 66.18%, while District 27 had the lowest, 7.47%. In Jackson, District 34 was highest at 72.82% and District 16 lowest at 44.43%. These are snapshot rates, not final participation figures.

Lakewood gave Democrat Cory Booker 11,918 Senate votes, compared with Republican Justin Murphy’s 9,057, a 2,861-vote margin. Booker received 56.07% of votes cast in that contest. Veronica Fernandez received 130, Joanne Kuniansky 65, and write-ins totaled 86.

Yet Republican Chris Smith took 18,341 Lakewood votes in the 4th Congressional District race, compared with Democrat Rachel Peace’s 3,560. Smith’s share was 83.65%, with 26 write-ins. The town-level results show a clear contrast between the two races, although the totals cannot establish how any individual voter marked both contests.

Jackson favored Murphy, 10,968 to Booker’s 8,425, a 2,543-vote margin. Fernandez received 403, Kuniansky 131, and write-ins 56. Smith led Peace in Jackson, 13,426 to 6,856, with 42 write-ins.

Booker’s strongest Lakewood district by vote share was District 27, where he received 159 of 219 Senate votes, or 72.60%. Murphy’s strongest was District 31, with 347 of 569, or 60.98%. Smith’s highest Lakewood share was in District 36: 300 of 301 House votes, or 99.67%.

In Jackson, Murphy’s highest Senate share was 63.23% in District 32; Booker’s was 57.42% in District 33. Smith’s highest House share was 84.18% in District 27. Peace led the House vote in District 33, 187 to 165.

Booker led Murphy among Lakewood’s counted Election Day, early and mail votes. In Jackson, Murphy led Election Day voting 5,921 to 3,771 and early voting 3,323 to 2,829, while Booker narrowly led counted mail votes, 1,825 to 1,724.

Lakewood’s committee race showed another contrast: Deborah Fuentes led Raymond Coles among Election Day votes, 8,942 to 8,159, but Coles led early voting 2,713 to 2,492 and mail voting 3,885 to 2,800.

In the two-seat Township Committee race, Democrat Raymond Coles received 14,757 votes and Republican Deborah Fuentes 14,234. Republican Moshe Raitzik received 9,170, Democrat Samantha Stokes 3,958, and write-ins 423. Fuentes led Raitzik by 5,064 votes for the second position.

Dovid Bender led the two-seat fire commission contest with 15,126 votes, followed by Harrison Pfeffer with 11,329 and Larry “Levi” Loigman with 5,428. Write-ins totaled 496.

For school board, Samuel Melnik received 14,847 votes and Harriet Goldberg 14,119. The aggregate write-in total was 8,613. That figure is not a single candidate’s tally and cannot identify who would take the third seat.

Elliott Shem-Tov received 10,625 mayoral votes, or 47.48%, ahead of Jennifer Kuhn’s 8,816 and Brandon Rose’s 2,868. There were 70 write-ins.

Shem-Tov led Election Day voting 5,987 to Kuhn’s 3,478 and early voting 3,437 to 3,059. Kuhn led counted mail ballots 2,279 to 1,201. Shem-Tov’s strongest district by share was District 20, with 647 of 916 votes, or 70.63%. Kuhn’s was District 7, with 535 of 687, or 77.87%.

Christopher Pollak led the two-seat council contest with 12,157 votes, followed by Amanda Trombetta with 10,397. John “Pojo” Pejoski received 8,176, Brian McCarron 8,136, Casey Jackson 1,919 and Paul Sarti 1,883. Write-ins totaled 103. Trombetta was 2,221 votes ahead of Pejoski.