Across JERSEY, voters had say in RACES big and small

You could say that the town immediately west of Paterson has had something of an identity crisis.

Residents in the town that was known as West Paterson until January of this year -- when it became known as Woodland Park -- have had five votes over two decades to determine whether to change the town name.

Woodland Park failed in 1989.

Same for West Park in 1995.

Ditto for Garret Mountain in 2001.

Then Woodland Park passed last year.

And it appears that Woodland Park might have passed again last night.

But this being the town west of Paterson, the final vote might not be so easy.

Residents voted 1,868 to 1,697 to change the name back to West Paterson. But the write-in voters opted not to change the name to West Paterson by a 529 to 328 margin.

That left the total at 2,196 in favor of changing it back to West Paterson and 2,226 not in favor, a difference of 30 votes. But there are still about 30 provisional votes to be counted, and the elections board has the final call.

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