By Donald Gilpin

The counting continues as votes are still coming in from early voting, mail-in, and provisional ballots from around the state, but by Thursday, two days after Election Day, the picture was becoming clearer.  All results are unofficial until certified later this month.

Incumbent Brian McDonald (3,961 votes), Mara Franceschi (3,718 votes), and incumbent Elizabeth “Betsy” Baglio (3,656 votes) have gained three available seats on the Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education (BOE), with Jeffrey Liao (3,384) running a close fourth.

In the 16th Legislative District, it was a see-saw battle between Democrats and Republicans as tallies came in Tuesday night through Wednesday, but the Democrats seem to have prevailed, with Andrew Zwicker (37,451 votes) defeating Michael Pappas (34,879) for a seat in the New Jersey Senate, and Democrats Roy Freiman (36,737 votes) and Sadaf Jaffer (35,348) apparently edging out Republicans Vincent Panico (35,091) and Joseph Lukac III (34,447) in the race for two seats in the state Assembly.

By Wednesday evening the Associated Press finally declared incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy, with a lead of slightly less than two percent, the winner in the race for governor. Murphy has delivered his victory speech, but the votes are still being counted and Republican Jack Ciattarelli has not conceded.