Judge sets next hearing date for Asbury ballot challenge
O'Brien: 'Does that mean I have to haul in these 300-odd people?'
A second hearing date of July 16 has been scheduled to decide if uncounted ballots in the May 14 Asbury Park city council election should be opened.
Daniel Harris III, an unsuccessful candidate on the A-Team slate, last month filed a challenge to the election results. His petition seeks to count 332 vote-by-mail [VBM] ballots and 32 provisional ballots that were disallowed by the Monmouth County Board of Elections.
In a hearing Tuesday to start the case, Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Dennis O’Brien ordered Harris’s attorney — Kristie M. Howard of Montclair — to specify what information she needs before the trial from county election officials, the Monmouth County Clerk’s office and any of the candidates who won the election. O’Brien required that request for information to be provided to all parties in the case by the end of that day.
If counted, the number of ballots contested are enough to change the election results. The winners — John Moor, Amy Quinn and Myra Campbell of the One Asbury ticket, and John Loffredo and Susan Henderson of the Forward Asbury ticket — were sworn into office Monday. Campbell was appointed mayor and Henderson deputy mayor.
Harris’s petition challenging the election results also requests that “the correct vote count” not only be applied to him, but to his A-Team running mates Duanne Small, Jim Keady, Nora Hyland and Remond Palmer.
On the A-Team, the three highest vote getters were Keady with 447 votes, Small with 444 and Harris with 430. The three lowest winning candidates were Henderson with 620 votes, Campbell with 622 and Loffredo with 654.
That puts Keady and Small within 178 votes of unseating Campbell and Henderson. With the 364 contested ballots at stake, Keady, Small and Harris would need to close a 225 vote margin to win a council majority by also unseating Loffredo.
The two other winners were John Moor with 723 votes and Amy Quinn with 716. Ousted incumbent Kevin Sanders came in sixth with 596 votes.
At Monday’s hearing, Harris’s attorney Howard focused on 252 VBM ballots that were voided because they did not have the signature of a person providing assistance on the application for the ballot, as required by law.
Those 252 ballots were voided based upon looking at the handwriting which was different in separate sections of the application for the ballot — indicating someone provided assistance, according to Deputy Attorney General George N. Cohen, who represents the Monmouth County Board of Elections and the Monmouth County Superintendent of Elections.
“[T]here was no indication on the application that there was an assistor, yet it looked like there were different handwritings on those,” he said.
“Does that mean I have to haul in these 300-odd people, or 252 people, and take their testimony and analyze each ballot with them?” said O’Brien of the voters who filled out the VBM applications voided for lack of assistor information.
“We can bring in one of the board members to testify how it was they came to that determination,” Cohen said.
Howard said she could also provide several affidavits from voters who found out a month later their votes were not counted.
“How do we cross-examine an affadavit?” O’Brien said.
“If we have to bring [the voters] in, we will,” Howard said.
She also raised the question of 117 VBM applications allegedly taken by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office when it searched the A-Team campaign headquarters during the election. Howard inquired whether those applications were ever received by the County Clerk’s Office.
“There is an ongoing investigation, and that is all I can tell you as far as that goes,” said County Counsel Andrea Bazer, who represents Monmouth County Clerk M. Claire French, and the county election offices under her jurisdiction.
However, notice of the hearing was provided to the Prosecutor’s Office, Bazer said. No attorney appeared on behalf of the Prosecutor’s Office, nor was the Office named in Harris’s petition as a respondent. “I can’t force them to be a party in and of itself,” said O’Brien.
“The only question is, how fast can we do this?” O’Brien said in regard to the time it would take to hold a trial.
As for other respondents named in Harris’s petition, Councilwoman Amy Quinn, who is also an attorney, represented herself. Councilmembers John Moor and Mayor Myra Campbell were also present at the hearing, but without counsel.
Eric D. Brophy, Wall, represented Councilmembers John Loffredo and Sue Henderson, who were not in attendance.
CORRECTION: A prior version of this post referred to the July 16 court date as the trial date for the election contest. It is the second hearing in the proceedings.
————————————————————
Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook and Twitter.
