| Written and distributed since 2003 by Donald Katz, Esq., Republican State Committeeman for Middlesex County and Counsel, Middlesex County Republican Organization HELP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: ELECTION DAY REPUBLICAN POLL CLERKS NEEDED, ESPECIALLY IN HEAVY DEMOCRAT TOWNS LIKE NEW BRUNSWICK There are towns in our county where almost none of the poll clerks are Republican, even though half of the poll clerks in each election district in the county are supposed to be Republican (and the other half Democrat). As you may already know, the Board of Elections will honor poll clerk appointment recommendations made by each GOP municipal chairman (or his or her designee), provided they are submitted in a timely fashion. However, there are towns where the local Republican organizations don’t make these appointments and in those towns, the local municipal clerk or the Board of Elections will fill the slots with whoever they can find – sometimes with Unaffiliated voters and, we have found, sometimes actually registered Democrats in some of the Republican poll clerk positions stemming from times when local Republican organizations failed to make Republican recommendations for the positions and, sometimes because a local municipal clerk, (typically a Democrat and often in a strong Democrat town), “helps” with finding and filling poll clerk spots. In these instances, very few Republicans are appointed to the positions, and often the Unaffiliated voters (often called Independents) are really registered Democrats who switch their registration to Unaffiliated and are appointed to fill positions that are supposed to be filled by Republicans. In some cases, such as in New Brunswick, we found that the municipal clerk (a Dem) was intentionally not placing Republicans in Republican positions, so the Republican Commissioners stopped the municipal clerk from having any involvement in filling Republican poll clerk positions in New Brunswick, and it is now being handled directly by the Board of Elections. However, it is, and has been, difficult to find enough Republicans to fill these positions, and we need your help so that, on Election Day, especially in heavily Democrat towns such as New Brunswick, there will be Republican poll clerks working in these election districts, and not just Dems or “Unaffiliated” voters who are really mostly Dems, in each polling place. We really need your help to make sure that there are Republican poll clerks in these heavily Democrat towns, such as New Brunswick, so that everything is done properly and legally in all polling places on Election Day. If you or any other Republican can help, it is important for the Republican party and for the election system itself, that you do so. Trained poll clerks are presently paid $300.00 per election plus extra to take training every two years. If you or anyone you know can help and take one of these paid poll clerk positions, contact your GOP Municipal Chair or poll clerk coordinator, as soon as possible. If the positions are all filled in your municipality, there are definitely vacancies in other towns in the county and you, or they, should call the Board of Elections directly, without delay, at 732-745-3471. POLITICAL TRIVIA: Here are some political trivia questions. I hope you enjoy them. The answers are below, immediately above the calendar: 1. Zachary Taylor never voted before his own election. True or False? 2. Who was the last President not to have a college degree? 3. Which state has the most presidential libraries? 4. Yale’s secret society “Skull and Bones” included three U.S. Presidents. Name them. 5. Who was the first President born outside the 13 original colonies? 6. Ronald Reagan was the only President born in what state? 7. What President was a cattle ranch owner in the Badlands? ARE YOU ON THE BALLOT FOR ELECTION TO THE REPUBLICAN COUNTY COMMITTEE IN YOUR DISTRICT IN THE COMING PRIMARY ELECTION? IF YOU AREN’T, AND THERE IS A VACANCY IN YOUR DISTRICT, YOU CAN GET ELECTED BY WRITE-IN VOTE. HERE’S HOW YOU DO IT When you receive your sample ballot (and they are supposed to be mailed out on May 20th), you can tell if there is a vacancy for one or both of the county committee positions in your district. If there is no one, or only one person, running for the position, the position will be marked: “No Nomination”. If that is the case, and you are interested in running, you can write your name in on either your vote-by-mail ballot or on the voting machine. Since under the recent law change, you will need anywhere between 1 and 10 votes to get elected, (unless, of course, two people in your district end up getting more votes than that), I would suggest you contact your municipal chair to find out the minimum number of write-in votes you will need, but in the overwhelming number of districts, only between 1 and 4 write-in votes will be legally sufficient. It is easier to write in on a paper, vote-by-mail, or provisional ballot. In that instance, look for the “write-in” box(s) on the ballot for County Committee and print the name or names of the candidates on the lines provided, and also be sure to fill in the oval next to where you write the name or names. On our touch screen voting machines, touch the Write-In part of the screen next to the County Committee office you select. Once you touch the screen, the write-in keyboard will appear on the screen, and you should then use the keyboard to enter/type in your write-in candidate’s name. When you are finished entering their name, hit “Accept,” and then the name you entered will appear in the write-in block you selected. If you are writing in two different candidates for the two positions, do the same thing next to the other County Committee office. Once the name or names you entered appear and you have also voted for all of the other candidates you want, then complete the process to cast your vote. ATTENTION EAST BRUNSWICK REPUBLICANS: YOU ARE NEEDED TO WRITE IN THE LOCAL REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES IN THIS PRIMARY ELECTION SO THE DEMS DON’T BENEFIT FROM THEIR “UNDEMOCRATIC” ACTIONS IN GETTING THE LOCAL REPUBLICANS THROWN OFF THE BALLOT It wasn’t enough for the Democrats to make it more difficult to get on the ballot by radically increasing the number of petition signatures needed to do so; now the local Dems got the East Brunswick Republican Council Candidates: Slavamir Sokalaw, Vincent LeBlon, and Dennis Blum thrown off the ballot for not having enough good petition signatures. In order for the East Brunswick Republican Council Candidates to get back on the ballot for November, we need every East Brunswick Republican reading this (and all other East Brunswick Republicans that the rest of you know), to write in the names of all three council candidates, either on your vote-by-mail ballot or on the voting machine either during the Early Voting Period or on Election Day. If you don’t know how to do it, contact the East Brunswick Republican Municipal Committee officers or any of the council candidates. Let’s show the Democrats that their undemocratic behavior doesn’t pay. FREE NAME TAGS FOR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES IN MIDDLESEX COUNTY AVAILABLE As I have done for many years, I will be happy to make name tags for any Republican candidate for partisan public office in Middlesex County who wants one – for free. If there is interest, the candidates’ GOP municipal chair should send me an e-mail with the candidates’ information – including exactly the way each candidate wants his or her name on the name tag, plus his or her e-mail address, (and address and phone number), so I can add them to my e-mail newsletter list, and I will prepare the name tags, by shortly after Primary Election Day, or possibly sooner. THANK YOU TO THE MIDDLESEX COUNTY REPUBLICAN WOMEN’S CLUB FOR THEIR CAMPAIGN SCHOOL As I previously reported, the Middlesex County Republican Women’s Club held a free Campaign School for Republicans in Middlesex County at the end of April. There were Republicans there from all over the county (and the Union County GOP Chair also came)! There was a very knowledgeable lineup of speakers and people learned a lot of useful information. If you missed this event, you really missed something. Thank you to President Tonia Kulberda and the rest of the MCRWC for running this campaign school. Speaking about campaign training, as I also previously reported, the New Jersey Republican State Committee, in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, ran a series of 5 virtual training sessions on different topics every Wednesday in April, and I participated in each session. They were uniformly excellent, and at each session, more than 10% of the attendees were Middlesex County Republicans. ANSWERS TO POLITICAL TRIVIA: 1. True. Zachary Taylor won the 1848 U.S. presidential election, the first election he ever voted in. 2. Harry S Truman. Truman, after graduating from high school, worked and served in the Missouri National Guard. He rose to the rank of captain during World War I and, upon his return to the US, entered politics. 3. Texas. There are currently 14 presidential libraries managed by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Texas is home to three of them, more than any other state. The Johnson Library is located in Austin, while the George H.W. Bush Library is in College Station, and the George W. Bush Library is in Dallas. 4. William Howard Taft, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, 5. Abraham Lincoln, born in 1809 near Hodgenville, Kentucky. 6. Illinois (Reagan was born in the small town of Tampico, Illinois.) 7. Theodore Roosevelt. After tragically losing his wife and mother, Theodore Roosevelt left New York in 1884 and moved west. He settled in the Dakota badlands, where he lived as a successful frontiersman, buying 1,000 head of cattle and two ranches. He rode horses, herded cattle, and even chased outlaws as a frontier sheriff. He eventually returned to the East Coast in 1886, after a harsh winter took most of his cattle, and he resumed his career in politics UPDATED CALENDAR What follows is an updated calendar. If you have any municipal or countywide fundraisers or functions you would like me to include in my e-mail calendar from time to time, please contact me at dkatzlaw@aol.com. Please note that organizations and campaigns sometimes provide added information, change dates, or cancel events, which I include in this calendar if I receive the information in time. Therefore, if you plan to attend an event, please make sure you review the calendar listing in my latest e-mail and, to the extent you may not have pre-registered for the particular event so the sponsoring group will be able to contact you about any changes, you may want to check with the sponsoring group before you go, to make sure the information has not changed. Also, please be aware that these e-mails are not official MCRO notices or mailings; they are just something I do, voluntarily, to help our Republican Party. May 12 (Tuesday) – Last day to register to vote in the Primary Election. May 12 (Tuesday) – Deadline for filing your list of primary election day challengers with the Board of Elections. (Middlesex County Board of Elections, 26-B Kennedy Boulevard, East Brunswick, New Jersey 08816) May 17 (Sunday 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm) – Clearbrook Republican Club (Monroe Twp.) Patriotic Party. Clearbrook Clubhouse Ballroom, 1 Clearbrook Drive, Monroe Twp. $55.00 per person. Live band, prizes, and catered barbecue. Checks payable to “MTRC” should be mailed to 1600 Perrineville Road, Suite 2-122, Monroe Township, NJ 08831. Questions, contact Joann at 201-400-5648 or godcreatedme@aol.com. May 26 (Tuesday) – Last day for vote-by-mail ballot applications to be received by the County Clerk by mail, in order to vote in the Primary Election. (Middlesex County Clerk, P.O. Box 1110, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-1110). May 26 (Tuesday) – May 31 (Sunday) – Primary Election Early Voting Period (Note: this time period is longer than previously noted, due to another newly adopted law.) June 1 (Monday 3:00 pm) – Last day to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot in person (or by authorized messenger) at the County Clerk’s office (26-C Kennedy Boulevard, East Brunswick, New Jersey), in order to vote in the Primary Election. June 2 (Tuesday) – Primary Election June 10 (Tuesday 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm) – Middlesex County Republican Women’s Club Meeting, East Brunswick Library, 2 Civic Center Drive, (off Ryder’s Lane), East Brunswick. June 30 (Tuesday) – Middlesex County Republican Organization Reorganization Meeting. Forsgate Country Club, 375 Forsgate Drive, Monroe Township. August 3-9 (Monday through Sunday) – Middlesex County Fair at the Middlesex County Fair Grounds, Cranbury Road, East Brunswick. Volunteer at the Republican booth. The Middlesex County Republican Women’s Club (“MCRWC”) and the Middlesex County Republican Organization co-host the booth. If a GOP Municipal Committee or GOP Club would like to take a night, please contact MCRWC President Tonia Kulberda at 973-885-1030 or tonia@kulberda.com for more info and to sign up for a night. Please forward this information to any Middlesex County Republican, or other individuals, who you think might be interested in seeing it, but, before you forward it, make sure you delete the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this e-mail, otherwise one of the people you forward it to, may unsubscribe you and the program will not let me add you back to my mailing list. Further, if you know of any Middlesex County Republicans who would like to receive periodic reports about Republican-related information I believe might be interesting or useful, please have them send me, Donald Katz, an e-mail to dkatzlaw@aol.com, and I will add them to my e-mail list. By the same token, if you ever wish to be removed from my e-mail list, click “unsubscribe” at the foot of this e-mail. Donald Katz, Esq. Republican State Committeeman – Middlesex County and Counsel, Middlesex County Republican Organization dkatzlaw@aol.com 119 Leeds Lane Monroe Township, NJ 08831 (C) 908-227-9239 Copyright © 2026 Donald Katz, All rights reserved, except forwarding of entire newsletter to Republicans is permitted and encouraged and excerpts may be used for non-commercial purposes provided the excerpts are attributed to Donald Katz |
MIDDLESEX COUNTY GOP UPDATE
