Bill Morrissey, a lifelong Republican, voted on Tuesday in New Jersey, as he always does. He did his homework first, mindful of the reverberations of Washington politics and the reach of a president he did not vote for and does not support.
As he read the ballot, he saw a familiar name: Representative Thomas Kean Jr., a Republican who lives half a mile away from his house in Westfield, N.J., and has been missing from Congress for nearly three months with little explanation.
The secrecy surrounding Mr. Kean’s absence from Congress, Mr. Morrissey said, was troubling. “What are they trying to hide?” he said.
But he pushed the box next to Mr. Kean’s name on the touch-screen anyway.
“I could have skipped it,” said Mr. Morrissey, 75, noting that Mr. Kean was running unopposed in the primary. “But it wouldn’t have made a difference. That’s the problem.”
Helen Raczkowski, a self-described “card-carrying Republican” from a neighboring town, Mountainside, made a different choice. She left the box blank, concerned about Mr. Kean’s ability to do his job and what she sees as his willingness to “kowtow” to President Trump.
“Look at the price of gas. Look at the price of food,” Ms. Raczkowski said. “And all of this money going to a war with what end?”
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