This has been one of the hardest years, if not the hardest, for veteran state Senator Ronald L. Rice (28) of Newark, in a lifetime of tough knocks, wars both domestic and foreign, and that most difficult course of all for a public servant in these decayed times: fighting for the public interest amid the wretched games of public instruments for private gain.

He lost his beloved wife this year, a shock that took an obvious toll on him as he continues to advocate for long held and aggressively advanced public positions, while caring for his ailing mother.

The Vietnam combat veteran who was fighting in Southeast Asia while his contemporaries, the two contenders for the 2020 presidency, dodged the war – Donald Trump on the excuse of bone spurs – who came home to a city engulfed in the flames of deep racial and economic discord, while Joe Biden walked back statements of having marched and lunch countered during the Civil Rights Movement, Rice said he’s doing everything he can to get fellow Democrat Biden elected president.

“We’re working hard, making calls daily in Essex County under the leadership of Chairman LeRoy Jones,” Rice told InsiderNJ. “We’re making calls, getting ballots out. Our expectations, in terms of goals, is to get over 300k votes but we may be under expectations, though we’re still banging away. The Joe D’s and others have made some phone calls. My team is trying to ramp up. People have to know in the final days now that they must take that ballot to a drop box or directly to the clerk’s office.”

Rice didn’t want an all-VBM election.

He wanted a safety-first process that did not interfere with Americans’ learned behavior of actually going to polls to record their votes.

But he’s adjusting.

No choice.

“My greatest concern is that on Election Day, people are going to rush to the polls long and we will experience long lines of voters filling out provisional ballots,” Rice said. “The mail is still crazy. I just believe, when this is over with, we are going to have this debate to make sure people are not disenfranchised. We will have to find a way to make polling places safe.

“I do anticipate Election Day lines, and my thought is if they can stand in line to get a paper ballot, they can stand in line to vote on a machine,” said the senator. “All polling places are not open, of course,” and that is bound to create backlog in the ones that are.

As for the contest itself, Rice said he sees a close presidential tilt between Trump and Biden.

“I don’t believe in polls [which show Biden ahead], but I cant see this guy [Trump] getting elected again,” Rice said. “If people think Trump was bad, give him four more years. It’s going to be horrible. The guy’s ego – well, needless to say.”

If the urban-based, Democratic registration-rich Essex looks poised to exhibit an outcome closer to 2016 than 2008 in terms of raw performance, and provides a glimpse into the potential for other cities in battleground states to also underperform, other areas will likely take up the slack, said Rice.

Biden will pick up support in the suburbs, he argued.

“Every time the party thought they could dispose of me, I went to new districts and worked them, which is what this presidential campaign has done,” he said. “Even traveling the rural areas in Pennsylvania,  where my sister is taking care of our mother, you see Biden signs. There are some folks up there fighting back. Trump is hustling but Biden is hustling too – without the huge crowds of people, because Biden’s interested in the presidency not committing suicide.”

A champion of marijuana decriminalization, Rice opposes the marijuana legalization question, and condemned the political culture around its appearance on the ballot.

“[State Senator Nick] Scutari and Brendan Gill and others – they’re pumping a lot of money to get the message out, and the question itself is confusing. It doesn’t really let you know you’re legalizing marijuana,” said Rice. “COVID-19 is cause less turnout, but I’m not sure that will cause the question’s defeat. I’ve done the best I could, but we don’t have money to fight the Brendan Gills and the PR and law firms looking to make money off of this. Unfortunately, urban communities are going to pay the price. A lot of time has already been lost and much harm already done by not getting decriminalization done, which would have released young men unjustly imprisoned and prevented more of them, these past two years, from going to jail.

“But I’m going to keep fighting,” Rice added.