We are writing as the presidents of the League of Women Voters affiliates in Monmouth County to acknowledge and congratulate our county clerk, Christine Hanlon, Superintendent of Elections Mary DeSarno and Board of Elections Administrator Robin Major for their hard work and dedication in meeting the challenges of this election year.
Implementing new election equipment and first-time early in-person voting required a massive, coordinated effort.
They skillfully managed the acquisition and deployment of new voting machines and electronic poll bookers, trained poll workers on a new voting process, and ran a multi-media campaign to alert and inform voters of early voting.
Their success can be substantiated as Monmouth County saw the highest turnout in the state for each day of early voting. Overall, more than 6% of Monmouth County registered voters cast early in-person ballots on the new machines.
As the county election offices worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth-running election, they found time to respond quickly and expertly to the league’s requests for information and updates on the status of the new voting process.
The information and resources they provided us were essential to the league’s nonpartisan work to educate and motivate voters. This election cycle, the Monmouth County leagues held 12 candidate forums seen by more than 3,000 voters.
We produced fliers about the new machines and early voting process which we distributed throughout the county.
We created an “Election 2021: What’s New? What’s Different?” webinar which we delivered to organizations and community groups and made available on our own and other websites.
And we covered more than 90 competitive Monmouth County races in our nonpartisan online voters’ guide VOTE411.
The county clerk, administrator of the Election Board, and superintendent of elections distinguished themselves in meeting the challenges of changing election conditions.
We believe their willingness and availability to work with community organizations like the League of Women Voters to keep voters informed contributed to that success.
Barbara Chaudhery
President
LWV Greater Red Bank Area
Sharon Steinhorn
President
LWV Western Monmouth
Evelyn C. Murphy
President
LWV Southern Monmouth County
