Some districts are more robust than others, but the common theme in Belleville is high voter turnout this year in an all-vote-by-mail election year, compared to 2016.

InsiderNJ this afternoon talked with Gary Iacobacci, who manages the Ward One Campaign of incumbent Councilwoman Marie Strumolo-Burke.

Morning Ward One numbers district by district:

District 1 votes cast thus far 224 – (2016-160) +40%

Dist two – 177 (2016-149)+19%

Dist three – 192 (2016-85)+126%

Dist four – 188 (2016-90)+109%

Dist five – 102 (2016-34)+200%

Dist six – 187 (2016-78)+140%

Tallied, to this point, it adds up to 634 Ward One votes in 2016 and 1,070 this year.

And the county still has until Thursday to count ballots postmarked by close of business today.

Other Essex towns – Nutley and Montclair – were similarly posting high voter turnout. Newark and Irvington have already exceeded past like-election years, according to Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin.

There were ongoing hazards this week, however.

Continuing frustration over missing vote-by-mail ballots and a fight for messenger ballots characterized the late afternoon stretch in Belleville in a dogfight May 12th election between incumbent Ward One Councilwoman Marie Strumolo-Burke and challenger Carmine Mattia.

Mayor Mike Melham backs Mattia.

This week, he and the challenger’s other allies were in and out of the clerk’s office receiving and running back messenger ballots for people who told them they never received their original vote-by-mail ballots.

People – voters – were also presumably making those same runs to submit the ballots Melham says they never received.