Camden County mailed 96,000 vote-by-mail ballots starting Monday, Sept. 14, for the Nov. 3 General Election. Cherry Hill voters should find them in their mailboxes by Thursday, Sept. 17.
The ballots cover more than a quarter of the county's 360,000 registered voters. Camden County Clerk Pamela R. Lampitt said the volume is "on the level with what we would expect" for an election, NJ Pen reported Monday, Sept. 14.
Lampitt deliberately held the mailing until neighboring Gloucester County's ballots arrived without problems. Ballots for special elections in Gloucester Township on Saturday, Sept. 12, and Clementon on Tuesday, Sept. 15, were also delivered and returned without incident ahead of those votes.
"We could have dropped ours a little bit earlier, but we wanted to wait and see whether or not the households in Gloucester County actually received their ballots, and they did," Lampitt told NJ Pen.
The cautious timing followed months of federal legal turbulence. President Donald Trump's Executive Order 14399 directed the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to create mechanisms to verify that only U.S. citizens receive ballots. USPS published a final rule Aug. 26 that would have allowed the agency to refuse delivery of ballots that did not meet new design standards.
Two federal courts have blocked that rule from taking effect for the 2026 election. The most recent order came Sunday, Sept. 13, from U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols in Washington, D.C. Nichols found that enforcing envelope design standards falls outside USPS's authority and that implementing the system so close to Election Day would likely disenfranchise legitimate voters. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue next.
As we reported Sept. 13, the ballot mailing had been approaching amid broader scrutiny of election operations. The legal path is now clear.
Where to drop off your ballot in Cherry Hill
Voters who prefer not to mail their ballots back through USPS can use two secure drop boxes in Cherry Hill, according to the township's website:
- Cherry Hill Public Library, 1100 Kings Hwy N (in the library driveway circle). This replaces the former municipal building location.
- Camden County College Rohrer Campus, 1889 Marlton Pike (rear of parking lot).
The county operates 29 monitored drop boxes countywide. All are available around the clock through the close of polls on Election Day.
How your ballot gets verified
Deputy Clerk John Schmidt told NJ Pen that once ballots reach the Camden County Board of Elections, an electronic sorting device checks each voter's name against the mail-ballot database. The same device captures an image of the signature on the sealed certificate envelope and compares it to the voter's signature on file.
Teams of one Democratic and one Republican election worker review signatures as well. Commissioners make the final call on any non-matching signatures.
Schmidt said clerks in all 21 New Jersey counties join a standing monthly call with the state Board of Elections and USPS representatives at the state, regional and federal levels.
What happens if there's a problem
Any ballot with a signature mismatch, envelope issue, or certificate problem triggers a cure letter. Voters then have 48 hours to resolve the issue with the Board of Elections before results are certified.
Voters who return their ballot by mail will receive a confirmation card once it arrives. Under New Jersey law, a mail ballot must be received before polls close on Election Day or postmarked by Election Day and received within six days after.
Tabulation can begin five days before polls close, but no results are reported until 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.
