Turnout Doesn’t Crack 20 Percent in Camden County

Despite four in five voters staying home for Wednesday’s special United States Senate election, Cory Booker still won Camden County in a landslide on his way to victory statewide, taking more than 64 percent of the vote, with 98 percent of the vote counted, according to initial, unofficial election results.

Just over 60,000 voters went to the polls countywide, about a fourth of the total number of voters who cast a ballot when the late Frank Lautenberg was elected, and somewhat less than a third of those who voted last year, when Robert Menendez won reelection.

A handful of problems were reported in the county, including a few with voters who didn’t get their mail-in ballots having to vote provisionally.

In Cherry Hill, John Swanson was one of those voters, and had about a 10-minute wait to get a provisional ballot.

“If this is happening throughout Camden County, we have a huge problem,” he said.

County officials said they’d processed and sent out 20,000 mail-in ballots for the special election, and any issues were likely isolated.

“The county is not aware of any problems or delays,” spokesman Ron Tomasello said.