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Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Dennis O’Brien upheld Asbury Park Municipal Clerk Cindy Dye’s decision to invalidate signatures of support for prospective City Council candidate Tracy Rogers, according to Municipal Attorney Frederick C. Raffetto.

The Tuesday decision means Rogers cannot move forward with his bid for one of the three seats up for grabs in the Nov. 8 election.

Rogers, who submitted his petition with a total of 130 signatures, filed a complaint Friday, saying he contested Dye’s decision to invalidate inactive registered voters signatures, thereby leaving him six signatures shy of the qualifying tally.

“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 said in a Friday afternoon telephone interview.

Rogers could not be reached Tuesday for comment at the time of this posting.

Raffetto, who represented the City and Dye, said a prospective City Council candidate needed one percent of the registered voters signatures of support to be placed on the ballot. That number equates to 90 signatures.

While Rogers submitted 130 signatures, 17 were invalidated for not being registered voters, eight for being inactive voters, and the remainder for varying reasons, including signing support for more than three candidates, Raffetto said.

“Voters are only allowed to sign petitions for up to a maximum of the number of seats available,” Raffetto said “We had people who didn’t know about that legal requirement who may have signed more than three petitions, and they were disqualified.”

While Rogers did not contest the disqualification of 32 signatures, it was the eight inactive registered voters signatures that he ascertained should be included in his supporting tally.

According to Raffetto the judge’s decision to dismiss the claim based on procedural and substantive grounds upholds Dye’s administrative function to invalidate the inactive signatures.

“There is a legitimate question as to whether ‘inactive’ voters are still residents of Asbury Park,” Raffetto said. “The statute does not require the municipal clerk find the eight voters and to determine if they are still residents of Asbury Park.”

The clarification needed as to why the eight signatories were deemed inactive on the statewide voter registry is a function of the Monmouth County Superintendent of Elections, who was not named in Rogers claim and therefore in attendance at Tuesday’s hearing.

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