The Jersey City Independent "

As of about 5 pm, it’s shaping up to be a pretty quiet election day here in Jersey City. This reporter spent a few hours wandering around the city asking poll workers, official challengers and paid canvassers to share their thoughts on how the day was going.

10:15 am: McNair Academic High School, three districts in Ward E. 202 votes recorded so far.
A poll worker told me things were going very smoothly. Augustino Pellagatti, an official challenger for mayoral candidate Lou Manzo with 54 years of experience at the job, echoed this but cautioned that “it’s early yet.”

10:35 am: I ran into Luigi Tartara, communications director for Ward E councilman Steven Fulop’s campaign, who was driving around the ward to drum up votes. “We’re feeling good,” he said.

10:45 am: Stopped into Manzo’s Downtown headquarters on Bright Street to take the temperature there and got an earful from a couple of disillusioned former Fulop supporters. They told me they were fully expecting Manzo to make it to a runoff tonight.

11:20 am: NJCU Athletic Center, three districts in Ward B. 117 votes recorded so far.
All the poll workers in this rather cramped voting station seemed in good spirits and told me they hadn’t heard about anything unusual so far. One of the workers, upon hearing that I was a reporter, did ask me if I could be of assistance in her quest to get the federal government to print Braille guides on the corners of our nation’s currency.

11:30 am: P.S. #38, four districts in Ward A. 138 votes recorded so far.
Again, no reports of irregularities or difficulties of any kind. I did hear a few requests for pay raises for poll workers, though.

12:00 pm: Stopped to chat for a bit with Marie Samedi, who was canvassing for Marie Day on Martin Luther King Drive in Ward F. Asked about Day’s chances, Samedi said “it’s important to be optimistic on election day.” But she said she was disappointed that people seemed to be “very nonchalant” about voting.

Along the same stretch of MLK I noticed a large group of young people wearing LaVern Webb-Washington T-shirts and handing out controversial literature paid for by developer Steve Hyman. One young lady in the group said she was supporting Webb-Washington “because she does a lot for the kids.”

12:15 pm: Cunningham Library, two districts in Ward F. 94 votes recorded so far.
Official challengers for At-Large incumbents Peter Brennan and Willie Flood were on hand and all was well from their perspective. Poll workers here agreed. Asked about turnout, they said they expected things to pick up a bit as people started arriving home from work later in the afternoon.

On the way out a man coming in asked me if the polls were crowded. “Not at all,” I assured him.

12:25 pm: I bumped into Walter Bradford, who was wearing a Phil Webb T-shirt and handing out literature near the Martin Luther King Drive light rail station. “There’s a lot of people out here” handing out literature, he said, but he wasn’t deterred. “We’ve gotta get something done” in this city, Bradford told me; and as far as he was concerned, Phil Webb is the one to do it.

12:45 pm: I wandered into Ward E council candidate Guy Catrillo’s campaign office on Newark Avenue, where the candidate himself graciously offered me some water and told me he was looking forward to seeing the returns come in.

12:55 pm: Just across the street in Fulop’s campaign headquarters, the mood was similarly excited, with campaign workers gearing up for this evening’s festivities to be held at the office. A woman wearing a T-shirt that identified her as “Steve’s Mom” seemed the most excited of all.

1:45 pm: Holland Gardens, one district in Ward E. 67 votes recorded so far.
All was quiet inside the polling station, where the friendly challengers and poll worker made Holland Gardens my favorite place of all to visit today. Around the corner good-sized groups of canvassers from different camps were getting along nicely and enjoying the sunshine.

2:15 pm: P.S. #8, four districts in Wards C and D. 197 votes recorded so far.
Voters and canvassers from two wards descended on #8 today, making for the most lively environment of all the places I visited. As I approached the school, I was greeted by a very enthusiastic canvasser for Ward D candidate Jimmy Carroll, who assured me that his man would “set [me] free.” Also on the scene were supporters for Ward C candidates Nidia Rivera Lopez and Jimmy King, as well as Ward D incumbent Bill Gaughan.

But that’s not all: independent Ward C candidate Adela Rohena was at the school as well. She told me she’d been “running a marathon” around the ward, and showed me her comfortable shoes to prove it.

Inside the polling station, the mood was much calmer. An official challenger for Mayor Healy’s campaign told me the day had been “peaceful. And that’s the way we like it.”

2:30 pm: I happened across local media personality Pat O’Melia doing a bit of tinkering on his truck’s engine along Central Avenue. It was too early to make any predictions, but O’Melia did tell me he might stop by Manzo’s campaign party tonight at Puccini’s on West Side Avenue.

2:45 pm: Hudson County Courthouse, four districts in Ward C. 233 votes recorded so far.
“Peaceful” was the word here, too, with poll workers and challengers saying they were pleased with what seemed to be a promisingly high turnout.

Just upstairs at the Board of Elections, one employee who did not wish to be identified told me things seemed to be much quieter today than during the last municipal election in 2005. Others at the board may know something she doesn’t, though. When asked how things were going, another employee told me that the board was “very busy with the election today; we have no time to talk to you, and we have no comment. Please step out.”

3 pm: I made a last impromptu visit to a campaign headquarters, this time Jimmy King’s on Newark Avenue across from Hudson Gardens. The lone campaign worker in the office told me she had heard “nothing unusual” about the day’s events. Well, that makes two of us.

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