West Deptford Republicans Get Broad Support in Low Turnout

Though turnout was low overall, voters across West Deptford threw their support behind Republicans Sam Cianfarini and Ray Chintall last week, with the pair winning outright or tying in 15 of the township’s 19 voting districts, all of which are have large Democratic registration majorities.

Perhaps more tellingly, the Republican team scored more votes than there were registered Republicans in 10 of those districts. Both candidates drew more votes than there are total registered Republicans in West Deptford – a Nov. 3 registration summary showed there were 2,437 Republicans, and both Chintall and Cianfarini topped 2,600 votes on Election Day.

“The voices of all the people were heard,” Chintall said on Election Night. “It’s all about people.”

He and Cianfarini knew they were in for a battle, given the two-to-one advantage the Democrats have in registered voters, as well as the annual get-out-the-vote effort; Chintall called the Democrats “a machine” in that respect.

“It’s hard to fight against that,” he said.

Cianfarini pointed to the team’s platform and message as key to getting past that disadvantage.

“It’s about the issues,” he said.

For an off-year election, where campaigns usually expect turnout around 35 percent–and one where Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said would be lucky to hit 30 percent – it was actually somewhat better than expected.

Though it was a high-visibility race with the first third-party candidate in township history, a total of 5,900 votes, just under 40 percent of West Deptford voters, cast a ballot this year, slightly above the expected mark, and about six percent lower than last year’s general election.

The township still saw a higher percentage of voters than Gloucester County in general, which saw 32.46 percent show up; statewide, most counties averaged between 20 and 30 percent turnout.

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The interactive map above and table below detail the district-by-district results Tuesday. Districts in red on the map were won by Cianfarini and Chintall, districts in blue were won by Kintzing and DiCarlo, and purple districts had at a tie between at least one candidate from each party.