Navigating the NJ Bureaucratic Maze

It took me three days to confirm that I am registered to vote in New Jersey. For some reason, I harbored the thought that surely local US bureaucracy must be better than its Bulgarian counterpart. Well, those thoughts have been dashed. For the past three days I have been trying to contact the Mercer County Clerk's Office in order to determine whether they received my voter registration. (I had not received anything in the mail although the election is next week and my registration was sent in at least 4 weeks ago. I certainly wasn't leaving it up to chance whether I am voting in this election!) On Tuesday, I called. Somebody answered took down my name and query and said they would call me back. They did, except at a time when I wasn't near my phone, and left a message. Instead of telling me whether I am registered or not, the message simply said that absentee ballots would be sent out the following day (had I requested an absentee ballot?) I called back. Someone else answered and transferred me... to a line where no-one picked up. I left a voicemail. Didn't hear back. Today, I decided to try my luck again. I called again. A woman answered and said she would transfer me to the right person dealing with voter registration. A man picked up.
Man: "Hello."
Me: "Good morning, I am calling to check whether I am registered to vote."
Man: "Yes, hello." (Pause)
Me: "Hi, I would like to check whether I am registered to vote."
Man: "Yes, tell me."
(Which I assumed means I should continue with my query.)
Me: "My name is Denitza. That's spelled D as in David -E-N as in Nancy-I-T as in Tom-Z-A. Last name, Jilkova: J-I-L-K-O-V as in Victor-A."
Man: "Hello, why are you calling?"
Me (thinking I must have landed on some alternate universe at this point): "I am calling to check whether I am registered to vote."
Man: "I don't understand."
Me (thinking, "How complicated can this be?"): "I would like to check whether I am registered to vote."
Man: "I have no idea what you are saying. Hold on."
Me: !?!?!?

So another man came on the line. I explained what I needed. He told me he needed to transfer me somewhere else but he didn't know where (?!?!?) so he gave me some numbers to try. They didn't work. I redialed the first number I had called and told the lady that she had transferred me to the wrong person. She gave me four more numbers to try. Finally, the third one worked and someone picked up. And she was able to check whether I was in the voter registration system. Best of all, I am. But why I had to go through this convoluted process, I will never know.

Vote. November 4.