To drop box or not to drop box?

Good morning!

As Election Day nears, some Dem county clerks are urging their vote-by-mail voters to use drop boxes, a push almost certainly tied to President Trump’s failed-for-now-but-likely-not-dead effort to limit mail-voting.

“I think I’ve been pushing the boxes for a while, not just this year,” Somerset County Clerk Steve Peter, a Democrat, told our Nikita Biryukov. “It’s just this year I’ve actually been putting out more press releases and public notices because with all the stuff going on in D.C., people are more confused and concerned.”

Camden, Middlesex, and Mercer counties have also issued some type of communication in recent weeks highlighting drop boxes over the U.S. Postal Service. And Nikita looked at some initial numbers to indicate use of drop boxes is way up among voters who have already sent in their ballots.

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon, who is also the Republican state chair, thinks fears about shenanigans at the post office are unfounded.

“I am just telling people there’s three ways to return a ballot like I always do because to me, since there’s been no change, I wouldn’t tell people to make a change,” she said.

Read more from Nikita.

Newark: The state’s Local Finance Board on Wednesday approved Newark school district’s move to secure a $500 million, 30-year lease so it can open a new elementary school in the city’s East Ward. School officials say they need the new school to alleviate overcrowding and the site they’ve chosen is the best option; GOP critics say the price tag is outrageously inflated. Ryan Cooper, one of the board members who voted in favor, said those criticisms were not helpful. “Perhaps there are better solutions, but no one’s proposing them,” he said. “I’m not going to hold these children hostage.”

This was a remote meeting. Here are the looks on the Newark school officials’ faces while the GOP officials were trashing their school plan:

Roxbury: Fred J. Aun at TapInto Roxbury says town officials read a statement at their Tuesday council meeting that confirms the federal government twice used a site it owns in the Morris County town to process immigrant detainees. The town’s GOP leadership and the Sherrill administration have been fighting the Trump administration’s push to open an immigrant detention center on the property, and the two sides have a settlement agreement in place that bars the feds from moving forward with that plan for now.

Inflation: Another election cycle dominated by fears about inflation, fun! A Wednesday report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said inflation grew to a 3.7% annual rate in September, a spike largely driven by an increase in energy prices. “Inflation has wiped out wage gains for 6 months now,” Heather Long, the chief economist for Navy Federal, wrote in a social media post. “It’s a financial squeeze. Americans are trying to work more hours to make up for it, but many are still falling behind.”