To the Editor:

The election for District 16 and all state candidates is on November 7 but the deadline for registration is October 17. With past low voter turnouts in Princeton and elsewhere it is important for people to vote and not take anything for granted, as we learned in last year’s presidential election. Over confidence that your candidate will win, even without your vote, can be a recipe for gross disappointment and worse.

If you are a citizen in Princeton and are not registered, you can go to the Clerk’s Office in Town Hall on Witherspoon Street weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Other towns likely have the same process.) It takes about five minutes to complete and sign the form which can be handed to someone in the Clerk’s Office or mailed to Trenton yourself. You can also obtain an absentee ballot at the same Clerk’s office or call the Mercer County Clerk’s office (609) 989-6465 for these forms.

Since redistricting about seven years ago, Princeton is now a minority within the larger 16th state district, which includes Hunterdon and Somerset Counties. We are fortunate to have some very good incumbent candidates in Republican Senator Kip Bateman and Democrat Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker, as well as new Assembly Democrat candidate Roy Freiman, who has a strong economic business background, much needed now.

Sadly, I cannot say the same of Assembly candidate Donna Simon. In her previous brief tenure in the state Assembly (since replaced by Assemblyman Zwicker) she pretty much went along and voted for Governor Christie’s misguided policies including, for example, the scheme to import toxic fracking waste from other states to New Jersey, the state with the highest number of superfund hazardous waste sites in the nation.
She has also been a strong NRA supporter.

Even at the gubernatorial level there are several splinter party candidates who could throw the election to an unintended candidate if enough people don’t take the time to vote.

Voting should be a citizen’s priority as a right and privilege. It also gives you the right to complain if the results are not to your liking.

Grace Sinden

Ridgeview Circle