Board bars 26 of first 38 challenged Asbury ballots
Nine held for further investigation; about 300 still to be reviewed
The Monmouth County Board of Elections on Monday began the tedious task of sifting through all of the Asbury Park vote-by-mail [VBM] ballots to determine which may be cast.
At the end of day one, the board voided 26 of the first 38 ballots they examined which had been subject to a challenge by the Asbury Together slate. Three of the 38 ballots will be counted, and the other nine will be held for further investigation. The board expects to resume its work early Tuesday when it will go through the remaining ballots that were challenged. Asbury Together filed challenges to over 300 ballots.
The four appointed commissioners — two Democrats and two Republicans — review and hear challenges to ballots, as well as review ballots that are flagged by board of election employees for potential problems.The commissioners began their review of the VBM ballots for all municipalities in the county today.
Members of the Asbury Together campaign filed their challenge to the Asbury VBM ballots with the Monmouth County Clerk of Elections office Thursday. The challenges question whether members of the opposing A-Team ticket and the ticket’s campaign volunteers properly handled messenger ballot applications — where a voter designates a messenger to bring them a VBM ballot.
Of the 38 ballot envelopes and ballot applications examined today, the 26 ballots were voided for reasons that include multiple handwritings indicating more than one person assisted with the ballot application but only one assistor was disclosed, lack of assistor information, voters signatures not matching up between the ballot or the VBM application or the voter’s registered signature as it appears in the county system.
In the 2013 municipal election, the board voted to reject 236 of 320 voided ballots for similar reasons. Of the 320 vote by mail ballots voided in last year’s city council race — enough to change the election results — 236 were voided for failure to disclose who assisted voters in filling out the initial application for the ballot.
During Monday’s proceedings, several of the commissioners commented they recalled voiding ballots for the same, or very similar issues, last year.
“In many cases, exactly the same,” said Leah Falk, the board’s chairwoman, .
Board member Christine Hanlon noted she recognized some of the same handwriting from the previous year.
“I remember all of them because I had to study them [last year],” said Hanlon during the proceedings.
One Asbury Together candidate said the board’s reasons for voiding the ballots were consistent with what they heard from voters.
“If they are voiding ballots based on discrepancies in the VBM application, that would be consistent with what voters told us when we were campaigning door-to-door,” Asbury Together candidate Amy Quinn told the Sun.
At the start of the review, Asbury Together candidate Joe Woerner informed the commissioners there were residents who told members of their campaign they were presented with a blank VBM ballot and only asked to sign in the places the voter’s signature is required, he said.
The Sun is awaiting comment from the A-Team.
In addition to the 38 VBM ballots reviewed on Monday that were challenged by Asbury Together, the board voided several other ballots for reasons that included voters’ addresses not matching between the VBM ballot application and the ballot itself, and lack of the voter’s signature provided on the inner flap of the ballot envelope.
A total of 758 VBM ballot requests were made from voters in Asbury Park, 400 of which were by picked up by designated messengers to deliver to voters, according to data from the clerk of elections office. The remainder were mailed to the voters.
Of those 758 requested ballots, 666 completed ballots have been received back at the board of elections office for counting as of 3 p.m. Monday, their records show.
The A-Team slate in the municipal election includes Remond Palmer for mayor, and Duanne Small, Derrick Grant, Kenneth Saunders, Jr.and Rosetta Johnson for council. Asbury Together is comprised of John Moor, currently an incumbent Councilman running for mayor, and incumbent Quinn, Woerner, Jesse Kendle and Yvonne Clayton for Council. Also running for mayor are incumbent Myra Campbell and Harold Suggs.
