Anthony Piscatelli is a long-time North Bergen resident who has voted in every election since 1948. And on Election Day 2000, when the nation went to elect a new President, Piscatelli said that he never witnessed anything quite like it in his hometown.
“You would think that they were giving something away in there,” said Piscatelli, who lives just a few steps from the polling place set up at North Bergen High School. “I’ve seen nothing but a constant stream all day. It’s amazing. Election Day has never been quite like this.”
As it turned out, North Bergen had its heaviest voting turnout in decades, even more than any local election of recent memory. Nearly 75 percent of North Bergen’s 28,532 registered voters went to the voting booths last Tuesday, which was 25 percent higher than the national average and five to 10 percent higher than the Hudson County average.
Regular challengers who work the polling places in North Bergen all agreed that the turnout was higher than ever before. One challenger had approximately 500 political fliers promoting the Democratic ticket, which he distributed within the first two hours since he arrived at his spot near McKinley School.
“It really has been something else,” said the anonymous challenger, who requested anonymity because he took the day off from work to work the polling place. “The people just keep coming. I’ve had to work hard here today. This wasn’t easy doings. I had to go back twice and get more cards to hand out.”
North Bergen definitely went Democratic in a big way on Tuesday, supporting Al Gore for President and helping to elect Jon Corzine to the U.S. Senate, as well as contributing to the re-election efforts of Congressmen Robert Menendez and Steve Rothman.
In the vote for president, Gore received 12,597 votes in the city, compared to the 5,191 votes cast for Republican George W. Bush.
North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco was pleased with the results, which showed his constituency voting for Gore by a ratio better than two to one.
“I’m ecstatic with the results,” Sacco said. “We gave a real good showing of ourselves and backing the Democratic platform.”
Sacco was also stunned by the voter turnout.
“I never saw a turnout this heavy for any election,” he said. “When I started hearing about the numbers, I was really shocked. It just shows that the people of North Bergen really care and want to make their voices heard.” In the race for U.S. Senate, Corzine, who won the election, collected 12,343 votes, compared to 4,896 for the Republican challenger Bob Franks.
And in the races for U.S. Congress, Menendez carried North Bergen, as he did all of Hudson County, collecting 7,614 votes compared to just 1,900 for Republican challenger Theresa DeLeon of Jersey City, in gaining re-election to his fifth term in the 13th District.
Because North Bergen is split between two congressional districts, the 13th and the 9th, Rothman also carried his portion of the township, collecting 4,703 votes in North Bergen, as opposed to the 1,737 votes cast for Republican challenger Robert Tedeschi.
Menendez held a victory celebration at North Bergen’s Schuetzen Park, which was attended by many of the local political Democratic leaders, including Sacco.
Sacco held out hope that North Bergen’s 50-year trend of picking the Presidential winner continues.
“Since 1944, whomever North Bergen voted for won the election,” Sacco said. “When the recount is over, we can see if that trend continues. No matter who it was, North Bergen was always representative of the way the nation voted. I hope that it remains that way.”
In truth, it did turn out that way, because Gore won the national popular election by less than 100,000 votes nationwide. The choice of president was pending on Thursday, as a recount was underway.