Voting Begins as Mail-In Ballots Arrive at Plainfield Homes for 2026 Primary

PLAINFIELD, NJ — Primary Election Day is June 2, but voting started late last week as vote by mail ballots arrived at many Plainfield homes on Friday and Saturday.The traditional Election Day is becoming election season due to an increasing number of voters who cast a ballot via mail, even after the automatic vote-by-mail of the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic has ended. Aside from mailing in one's ballot, Union County will hold early voting from May 26 until May 30 from 10am until 8pm, and on Sunday, May 31 from 10am until 6pm. Plainfield's early voting location will be Union College, at Church and East Second Streets.These ballots also provide us with a preview of only the third office-box ballot design in Plainfield—though the digital version in voting booths will have a slightly different layout. Counties around the state of New Jersey were court-ordered to use the ballot design in the Democratic Primary last year, followed by a bill signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy last year, ballot position matters less than it used to.Early this month, Richard Wyatt and Yasmin Griffin received favorable ballot positions in Plainfield's two city council races, where they will appear first. Wyatt is running to keep his 2nd and 3rd Ward at-large seat against Shatera Smith, and Griffin is running against incumbent Councilman Robert Graham and Meghana “Meg” Anandarangam.The following ballot shows the general layout for the first ward. For Second and Third Ward residents, Wyatt would be in 1E and Smith in 2E.