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City Council Candidate Tracy Rogers said he will appeal Asbury Park Municipal Clerk Cindy Dye’s findings that 8 of his signatures of support on his nominating petition are invalid, leaving him without enough endorsements to run in the Nov. 8 election.

“The simple fact is that a right to vote and sign a petition should not be usurped when other measures are brought into considerations, and when those measures are not needed in this process,” Rogers [show at right] said in a Friday afternoon telephone interview.

Rogers, who is running with Doug McQueen and Ketsia Beaubrun on the AP Future ticket, is among the nine residents who filed petitions for the three City Council seats up for bid. The seats are four a four-year long term.

The other candidates include the incumbent Asbury Together ticket – comprised of Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn, Councilwoman Yvonne Clayton, and Councilwoman Eileen Chapman; and the Citizens for Asbury ticket – comprised of Daniel Harris, Kevin Saunders Jr. and Stephen Williams.

At the crux of Roger’s claim is the legality of Dye’s decision to disqualify the signatures because they are classified as inactive voters.

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon said the challenge is a municipal fight and that her office has no authority over the local decision.

“This issue has never come up for us [with regard to verifying County races],” Hanlon said. “There are many reasons why a person is deemed inactive. It is based on a case by case file; you have to look at each voter individually.”

Hanlon said in her experience vetting county petitions, there are enough signatures [over the required amount] that allows a candidate to move forward if such an issue arises.

“We haven’t had to disqualify any petitions for this reason because they normally have enough signatures,” she said.

The rules, set by the state, are overseen by the Superintendent of Elections. A message to Superintendent Mary DeSarno was not immediately returned at the time of this posting.

In the meantime, Dye said she will move forward with submitting her findings to the Monmouth County Clerk’s office.

Rogers said Dye is basing her decision on a technicality that is outside of her purview.

“All she was obligated to do is to make sure that the signatures are for registered voters and that I have the correct amount of signatures,” he said. “ She went above and beyond for her interest in the matter.”

Rogers said he immediately filed an appeal in order to delay the placement of names on a ballot, which according to Hanlon is the responsible of the local clerk.

That leaves less than two weeks for an appeal decision since vote-by-mail ballots will be sent out on September 24. Hanlon said there are close to 20,000 vote-by-mail registrants to date.

[Headshot photo courtesy of Rogers]

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