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Raven: Tonight on "NJ Spotlight News" -- Half the state faces severe drought conditions with no rain on the forecast and more wildfires igniting.

Also, misinformation is circulating across various platforms, raising concerns about election security.

The state, and outputting safeguards in place ahead of the 2024 election.

>> We have so many safeguards in our system in New Jersey that overly can feel confident and comfortable that your boat is safe and secure and it will be counted properly.

RAVEN: Plus, school safety is a priority, as a state lawmakers respond to recent online threats, parents tonight, asking if enough is being done to protect students.

And celebrating the nation.

The state launches plans to celebrate America's 250th birthday in 2026.

>> It will discover that New Jersey is not just home to revolutionary history, we are to this day the birthplace for revolutionary possibilities.

RAVEN: NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

Announcer: From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight news" with Briana Vannozzi.

RAVEN: Good evening and thanks for joining us this Friday night.

I'm Raven Santana.

We begin with a few key stories we are following.

First, New Jersey voters are fearful about election day and the days and weeks following this historic presidential election.

According to a new Rutgers Eagleton poll, voters and all political parties are worried about political retribution and violence following election day as well as a health -- as the health of our democracy.

86% of those polled are very worried or somewhat worried about the future of democracy.

That number jumps to 92% among registered Democrats.

60% of those polled believe political violence is a major issue in our country.

Almost 80% expect some sort of violence in reaction to the election results.

The poll comes out a day after former President Donald Trump made remarks at a campaign event, saying Liz Cheney, one of his top Republican critics, would not be such a "radical war hawk" if she had guns trained on her face.

One of the most violent comments he has made in recent weeks against his opponents.

11 of the state's 21 counties are facing severe drought conditions tonight.

Those dry conditions are helping a knight even more wildfires around -- ignite even more wildfires around the garden state.

They have issued a red flag warning for seven counties in North and west New Jersey and those warnings come as a new wildfire has sparked in Morris County.

The fire service as the wildfire in Rockaway Township has burned 118 acres as of this afternoon and is only 10% contained.

At least 13 buildings are threatened, eight of which have been evacuated.

Green Pond Road is code lives -- is closed in the area around the fire.

The fire service has sent fire engines, bulldozers and ground crews to battle the blaze.

Down in Atlantic City, NJ transit service has been restored after he wildfire broke out overnight and suspend the trains along the Atlantic City line this morning.

Hoboken commuters are sounding off on social media a day after the Port Authority announced path station will be closed for nearly four weeks this winter.

Starting the night of January 30, the station will shut down so Port Authority can carry out safety repairs and improvements on an expedited schedule.

They include replacing 4500 feet of track, building new stairways, and replacing the track switching network.

The station is expected to reopen the morning of February 25 and commuters are already bracing for headaches as more riders will have to funnel on already crowded transit options to Manhattan.

The Port Authority says transit alternatives will include expanded ferry service, shuttle buses to other path stations and supplemental bus service into Manhattan.

The closure as part of a two-year $430 million project to provide more reliable service on the path system.

Port Authority will hold public information sessions in Hoboken, Jersey City and online in November and December where they can expect an earful from commuters.

Women in New Jersey suburban communities are pushing to get out the vote in these final days, whether to help Vice President Harris become the first woman president, or to put Former President Trump back in office.

They are not limiting efforts to just New Jersey.

As Brenda Flanagan reports, some women are even crossing the border to make a difference in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.

>> My neighbors, everyone on the streets are putting out sort of signs, they are very active, we are talking about it in the neighborhood.

Reporter: Folks are talking about the high intensity, high-stakes, and high anxiety in this deeply divisive election.

It's driving people to vote early, mobilizing residents in normally quiet suburbs, astonishing Marie Len Dishman.

>> The turnout has been phenomenal.

We had over 1400 people here in Madison.

>> Lots of enthusiasm.

People are just dying to get into vote.

They are so excited to cast their vote.

We do mailings and phone calls and we are doing our best to get out the vote.

Reporter: Republican Kathleen says people are trying to flip New Jersey red.

This state has its elected Republican -- has not elected a Republican president since Bush in 1988.

They see Harris winning blue New Jersey by double digits, so they have launched a get out the vote effort where they hope it will have more impact in a critical swing state, nearby Pennsylvania.

>> Door knocking is the single most important thing you can do to reach voters.

I went last weekend.

Reporter: Alex Jennings on weekends drives to the Poconos in Pennsylvania where volunteers set up a base of operations in a donated house.

They checked maps and knocked on doors, making their political pitch face-to-face.

>> Power station processed 277 canvassers, six buses, six stagecoach buses.

They came and we processed them all, we sent them out to canvas.

It is a massive logistical operation, and we get it done.

Reporter: She says New Jersey volunteers reached out to more than 16,000 Pennsylvanians this past weekend.

>> I was so anxious.

That's why I moved out here for a month, to do this work.

Since I have been here on the ground every day, my anxiety has lessened.

The more I talk to voters, again, even those who disagree with me, the better I feel about it.

>> Out of 50 doors, let's say, 10 people came to the door, two of those 10 people were undecided.

So it's really true that people are still undecided.

>> If you are living in New York City and New Jersey and you want to get involved in the presidential race, Pennsylvania is as fertile ground as you can find nearby.

Reporter: Political science professor Chris Moore lives in the area targeted by Democrats.

Polls show a toss-up in the most campaign he's ever seen.

>> The doors are always being knocked on.

The phone is buzzing with texts.

The mailers are stacking up inside your house every time you come home.

I think there is a consensus that we are looking to go back to a little quieter time in the state.

But it's good to be coveted.

Reporter: Democrats from outside districts have also landed in New Jersey's hottest congressional race to canvas for Sue Altman.

Republicans are pouring millions of dollars into the race, supporting incumbent Tom Keene Junior.

It is an emotional election.

>> Most that I know are voting but I'm worried about the ones who tell me they don't want to vote because they don't like either candidate.

>> Recently, somebody stole our yard sign, the Harris sign, and I think it is important to go vote, don't steal signs.

[Laughter] Reporter: Early voting a New Jersey continues through Sunday, November 3.

The clock is ticking for those rare undecideds.

Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

Raven: Early in person voting ahead of election day has now surpassed vote by mail totals, 744,000 people have now voted early in person as of Thursday, with more than 714,000 people casting a vote by mail, for a total of nearly 1.5 million early votes in this election.

That represents 22% of the total electorate.

Democrats continue to lead in early voting with 47% of early boats both in person and mail-in ballots.

Republicans so far make up nearly 30%.

The last day for early in person voting is Sunday.

But of course, a third way to vote is in person on election day.

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to monitor election sites across the state to make sure federal voting rights laws are enforced.

The additional election security comes as they have been instances of ballot box tempering another -- in other states like Washington and Oregon as well as misinformation circulating across various platforms.

Could this impact motor trust this election?

And if so how is New Jersey addressing potential risks to election integrity?

For more, I'm joined by senior writer Colleen O'Day.

Thanks for joining me.

A lot to talk about.

Trump's false claims about voter fraud and pencil many have raised fears and concerns.

They are drawing parallels to the rhetoric we heard back in 2020.

How does this misinformation impact the election today?

>> We have heard from folks in counties throughout the state actually who say that they are just getting inundated with calls, things that did not happen eight years ago, nine years ago before Donald Trump started running, about, how do I know my vote is going to be counted, how do we know these things are not happening, how do we know this is safe, how do we know the results will be accurate?

They are having to field all of those questions.

The message is, we have so many safeguards in our system in New Jersey that people can really feel confident and comfortable that your vote is safe and secure and it will be counted properly.

>> Raven: Do they just need to stick to the facts, then?

It is hard when it's on various blood forms.

>> The idea is a statement gets made and it gets magnified almost instantaneously.

They also get up a fight on some conservative media.

It seems like some people depending on what your media appetite is, you are being bombarded by these things.

Raven: When we think about threats to election security, recently we know there has been ballot tampering in Washington and Oregon.

It is kind of scary to see that.

What measures, if any, here in New Jersey are being taken so people do feel confident and they feel good about voting?

>> We have ballot boxes just like they have out West.

We have not thankfully suffered any tampering issues like that.

Those are under 24 hour camera security, checked regularly and cleaned out regularly by election officials.

There are other ways to get your vote by mail ballot in, you can put it in the post office -- use the Postal Service.

As long as you get it postmarked before closing polls on Tuesday, it should get there on time.

As long as they are postmarked.

You can also drop it off in person at your county elections office.

There are ways to get in your vote by mail besides the ballot box.

Raven: We know misinformation, disinformation has been really critical in the past election and could play a major part in this election.

Clearly that's why we are here, to make sure that people are receiving correct and accurate information and feel good when they go out to vote.

As we look ahead and think about, we now have less than four days, how important is that for how people accept the results of the vote?

>> One thing that people should really be cognizant of is it is highly unlikely we will know who the president of the U.S. is Tuesday night because of the times that polls closed and the closeness of races and the different ways that states count ballots.

It can take days.

The last -- four years ago, it took until Saturday, I believe, after the election.

People should really be very calm and not expect to see results then.

In New Jersey, we are likely to see a lot of results because we are a blue state for federal elections, because our districts are drawn in such a way that one party or the other is likely to win, that may be different in the seventh district where Sue Altman is challenging Mr. Kaine Junior.

Raven: And you will be keeping us updated as we see those results coming in.

Thank you so much.

Excellent reporting, per usual.

>> Thank you for having me.

Raven: The election was top of mine on chat box with David Drews this week, as he sat down with New Jersey senior Senator Cory Booker.

They discussed how the lack of civility has eroded U.S. politics, anticipation for election day and what he believes is crucial for all New Jersey voters to head to the polls even in a heavily Democratic state like ours.

>> Up and on the ballot in New Jersey from our county races, your vote matters, just because a lot of the people say it is a Kamala Harris state, this election in our state can determine who controls Congress, as well as a lot of County operations that are really depending on people turning up for commissioners, Sheriffs, and the like.

Raven: You can see the full interview with Senator Booker on chat box Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. on NG PBS -- NJ PBS.

Keep it here for NJ decides 2024 election night starting at 8 p.m. with all the results.

Reporters are across estate at campaign headquarters and in studio political analysis right here on NJ PBS, also streaming on our YouTube channel Tuesday, November 5, 2024 and the digital site until the last race is called.

Every New Jersey school is required to have a threat assessment team prepared to respond to school threats like ones that circuited last month online after a mass shooting in Georgia.

Split ministers today heard about school safety concerns and how to address them including needs outside a typical definition of security.

As Joanna Geithner's reports, increased safety measures also come with a price tag.

>> We have heard so many times about mass shootings and school shootings, which hit us hard.

Reporter: Education leaders testified today during a virtual legislated hearing of the joint committee on the public schools to talk about school safety, sharing best practices and identifying weaknesses.

>> And used to be we needed a security are more armed officers to be at schools during the school day, now there's a public expectation, we want them at concerts, at the open house, we want them at everything.

That has driven up costs.

Reporter: It did not take long for the focus to shift to the cost of security measures, from security personnel to system upgrades.

>> We do implement and have things like cameras in our schools.

Those cameras have to be replaced.

They are replacing a higher volume.

There is software.

The software costs go up every year.

>> There's a great employment of AI that works with school cameras.

It detects a weapon within a school within seconds.

We had it priced out at $100,000.

I want to have this, and once I see it, how can I tell the parents we cannot afford it?

Reporter: Speakers were told the joint committee would as a department of education about increasing funding for security measures, even though school funding overall is one of the most challenging areas of the state budget.

>> there's no real security without student and sometimes family mental health.

We are taking a position that we are working with the student and the family.

Reporter: A number of steps were listed from using common corners to trauma informed care, even working with community street teams to de-escalate situations.

They have also deployed teams to investigate causes behind chronic student absenteeism.

>> It's been tremendous.

We have been able to get information about a student and the family, about the home and their true intentions aro und comments or actions taking place in the school.

We were fortunate to be able to keep school-based youth services, which is having clinicians on site.

The care team meetings have given us more information and we believe assisted us in being proactive in the approach that we take to reducing some of the safety and security concerns.

Reporter: The former superintendent shared how the district provided self assessments for students and found several in or near crisis, even referring some of them directly to hospital intervention.

>> That was a sobering moment for me as a superintendent, that this is something that was not on our radar but through the universal streaming, this is what popped up.

Reporter: Funding came up, this time for more mental health services.

>> There need to be funds for those families because once an event is investigated, often times there are referrals to families for mental health supports and those families do not have the capacity or the insurance to cover that.

That will be an area where we can get some support on.

Reporter: One expert testified that school shootings cannot be the only focus of school safety measures, because there are only about five to 7 percent -- it is 5% to 7% of the actual concerns faced.

>> There are also paralyzed by aggressive and violent student and parent behavior, mental health crises, the things that are occurring every single day that do not involve a gun and they have not been trained and given adequate support to be able to respond to that.

Reporter: There are concerns that they have not seen any progress on the school safety tests were signed into law in January but has yet to announce any members who could begin tackling these issues had on.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Joanna Gagis.

Raven: We've still got a couple of years to go, but today New Jersey kicked off preparations for our country's 250th anniversary.

Our governor joint local leaders at the event, to put the state of on the map ahead of the celebration, leaders are promising to revitalize Revolutionary war sites and promote educational events throughout the state.

Ted Goldberg got a preview of what is to come in 2026.

Reporter: Monument battlefield saw more than a few gunshots during the Revolutionary war.

As well some nasty work from bayonets.

>> This is one of the first times that you see the kind of army really going toe to toe with the British, with the bayonet.

Reporter: He has done reenactments here for a decade.

>> They fixed their own bayonets and cut our charge and you have multiple moments of this really close, intimate violent fighting.

We think of the revolution is this time of wigs an chivalry and stuff like that and some of that might be true -- but in the end, this is a war and they are trying to kill each other.

Reporter: He is not interested in sanitizing history.

Neither are the people he talks to at the state park.

>> To get kids excited, that is the biggest thing.

If you get kids excited, they come and bring their parents and the parents get excited and start visiting other sites and learning more.

Just, yeah, teaching people about what happened here.

Some of the stuff they learned is not wrong and some is not necessarily right either but not far off.

Whatever sparks interest and gets people to come here and learn more about it.

>> New Jersey has two years to get ready for the one Centennial.

The 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution.

Governor Murphy says the state's spending $30 million in historic preservation and rehabilitation, much of it federal funding.

>> Very excited.

I don't know how many times I hear, oh, I've lived here my whole life and never knew this was here -- I've lived in New Jersey my whole life and never knew this was here.

Meanwhile, this is one of the longest and bloodiest battles in the American Revolution and a major turning point taking place right in people's backyards.

>> We've got a great story on the revolution, we just don't tell it well enough.

Reporter: Governor Murphy spoke at the state park today to highlight New Jersey's message for historical buffs and curious tourists who might swing by the garden state over the next few years.

>> As people travel across the globe to visit our state and learn more about the crucial role that we played in the war for independence, they will discover that New Jersey is not just home to revolutionary history, we are to this day the birthplace for revolutionary possibilities.

Reporter: The state's efforts include bringing exhibitions to local libraries, are installations of statewide and a series of talks featuring reenactors.

>> Let us seize this opportunity to prove that we are the essential destination for discovering the spirit of the American Revolution.

After all, it is here in New Jersey were more took place here during the Revolutionary war than any other state.

Reporter: Reporter: This will take a course of seven years starting in 2026.

As part of the state's program, they will highlight stories from folks we don't always hear about in history books.

>> It is not just about battlefields, but about the lives of all of those living and working in the middle of this war.

We are talking about the women, the children, free and enslaved Black people, indigenous people.

>> By the end of the war, fully one quarter of our troops were either Black or indigenous.

These are the stories that need to be told in the coming years.

Reporter: The activities will run from 2026 until 2033.

♪ Music to the ears of anybody interested in learning more about New Jersey's role in the American Revolution.

I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: In our spotlight on business report, as more and more students struggle with college loans and as the Biden administration seeks to deliver student loan relief, we are learning tonight that tuition prices at public universities are actually going down.

That's according to the annual trends and college pricing report by the college board.

It found that over the past decade, four-year public university tuition dropped about 4%.

The same goes for two-year options, which saw a 9% drop in tuition costs the last 10 years.

The report also noted it considers Rutgers the Garden State's flagship University in prices -- and prices there dropped 5% in the last five years.

New Jersey provides about $11,000 in funding for schools for each full-time student, according to the report.

The College Board says there are 18 million people enrolled in colleges in the U.S., with 13 million of those attending public schools.

That does it for us tonight.

But before we go, if you want to get to know the candidates running in your district, check out our NJ DECIDES 2024 election exchange podcast where David Cruz, Colleen O'Day, and Briana Vannozzi go one on one with the candidates running for the 12 congressional seats up for grab and the only U.S. Senate seat on the ballot here in New Jersey.

You can download the entire series wherever you listen and hear why they think they deserve your vote.

I'm Raven Santana.

For the entire team at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for being with us.

Have a great weekend.

We will see you right back here on Monday.

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