TOMS RIVER – Early results show that a very competitive district voted for the incumbent, Andy Kim, to keep his spot in the House of Representatives.
The one-term Democrat won over Republican challenger David Richter, according to national news channels calling it for Kim.
As of press time, Kim got 173,009 votes and Richter got 138,095 votes.
These amounts have not been certified yet. That usually takes a few weeks.
The Boards of Elections have until November 10 to accept mail-in votes, Ocean County Clerk Scott Colabella said. They will only accept ballots post marked by 8 p.m. on November 3.
After that, the provisional ballots will be checked. These are ballots people fill out at the polls. They have to be compared against mail-ins to make sure people didn’t vote twice.
They also have to solve problems with any ballots that were questioned for not having a matching signature.
The clerks will certify the election results on November 23.
New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District consists of parts of Ocean and Burlington counties.
Ocean County is predominantly Republican. Their total for the night was 82,944 for Richter and 63,544 for Kim. However, Colabella said that almost 50,000 votes have come in since this count.
Burlington County, which has a much larger percentage of Democrats, likely won Kim the spot. There were 55,151 for Richter and 109,465 for Kim.
Two years ago, Kim unseated Congressman Tom MacArthur in a race that was so close that it took almost two weeks after the polls closed for MacArthur to concede.
Early in the race, this district was on polling sites as one of the top 10 most competitive in the country. As the election season went on, the pollsters’ focus drifted elsewhere. At one point on election day, one website even had posted a 97% chance of Kim winning.
Kim greatly outraised and outspent his competitor, who had to fend off a bitter primary battle with Kate Gibbs.
