The Union City Board of Commissioners has adopted an ordinance that allows for🌼 early voting for the upc𝓰oming May 2022 municipal election.
At the Nov. 23 board meeting at the Acadꦉemy for Advancement and Enrichment, Mayor Brian Stack explained the ordinance. According to Stack, the early voting rolled out by the state this past Nov🗹ember was only for the General Election.
“I was very proud to vote for that legislation in the [state] senate,” said Stack, who is also the state senator for the 33rd 🌺Legislative🌃 District which includes Union City. “We just had early voting in the November election in Union City, which was nine days.”
However, if municipalities wanted to have early voting for the upcoming municipal election, under th🎃e state law they could pass an ordinance to do so. And after the good turnout in Union City in November, Stack looks to repeat that success.
High early voter turnout
“It really has worked wonders to build up participation and the residents coming out to vote,” he said. “We saw residents come out to vote who had not come out to vote in a long time.”
Even though there was vote-by-mail and extended Electio🔯n Day voting hours from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., ꦰearly voting really made the difference, according to Stack.
“These additional nine days allowed, in addition to vote-by-mail, 3,156 people to vote earlyไ in Union City,”🅰 he said. “It was placed in the middle of the city on 27th Street. The most amount of people were coming from that area. So I hope we can expand that and have more residents come out to vote.”
Stack will likely seek reelection in May for another four years as Mayor, what would be his sixth term. He said that early voting benefits everyone, and applauded its expandingꦇ use.
“Speaking as someone wh𝔉o seeks election, maybe everyone who comes out to vote doesn’t vote for myself or the commissioners, but participation is important in the political process,” he said. “I appreciate the fact that early voting is now pouring out.”
Minor differences
The difference between the early voting in the 2022 municipal election and the recent early voting is that in May, there will be less da📖ys to vote.
“U﷽nfortunately, there will only be three days, according to the state law,” he said. “So it would be Friday, Sat🅺urday, and Sunday, prior to the Tuesday municipal election.”
Stack hoped that the early voting would bring out even more residents this time. And to help ensure that, he said there would like🌸ly be more than just one early voting site in May, possibly up to five sites in the city.
Additionally, according to the ordinance, the early voting will use electronic poll books and optical scan voting machines, or other machines thaဣt produce a verifiable paper ballot.
The board voted unanimously to approve the ordinance. The next Union City Board of Commissioners meeting is at 7 p.m.🍌 on Dec. 7 at Colin Powell Elementary School at 1500 New York Avenue. For more information,▨ go to and click on the event on the calendar webpage.
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