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.

The unofficial returns also show a substantial turnout gap: Jackson had more counted ballots than Lakewood despite having about 24,000 fewer registered voters.

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.

Turnout: Jackson Ahead By More Than 21 Points

Lakewood had 22,556 counted ballots out of 66,776 registered voters, or 33.78%. Jackson had 23,413 out of 42,533, or 55.05%. That is a gap of 21.27 percentage points, with Jackson recording 857 more ballots.

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%. Turnout figures are preliminary.

Booker In Lakewood, Murphy In Jackson; Smith Strong In Both

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.

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.

Voting Method Made A Difference

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.

Lakewood: Coles And Fuentes Lead; Bender And Pfeffer Ahead

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.

Jackson: Shem-Tov Leads By 1,809

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.

In Jackson’s two-seat school-board race, Tara Rivera received 12,152 votes and Corrine Lucas 11,457, with 646 aggregate write-ins.

County Race And Public Questions

Republican Frank Sadeghi led the county commissioner vote in both towns: 17,289 to Democrat Kia Phua’s 3,634 in Lakewood, and 11,398 to 7,087 in Jackson. Write-ins totaled 80 and 67, respectively.

The towns split on County Question 1. Lakewood voted No, 10,744 to 4,787, while Jackson voted Yes, 8,478 to 7,689. Countywide results are separate.

Lakewood voters also opposed the proposal to reduce the school board from nine members to seven, with 11,459 No votes and 5,371 Yes votes. No accounted for 68.09% of votes on that question.

What Is Still Outstanding

A separate election-night ballot report listed 822 Lakewood mail ballots and 284 Jackson mail ballots received but not yet processed. Those figures do not represent every ballot still outstanding. Timely postmarked mail ballots may arrive through November 9, and the county canvass is scheduled for November 18.

Provisional ballots are not included. Multi-seat candidate totals do not measure turnout.