---

John Moor — a sitting councilman who ran on the Asbury Together ticket — will be over the required 50 percent threshold to win the mayor’s race outright without a run-off election, according to unofficial results provided by City Clerk Steven Kay and county election officials.

With vote-by-mail ballots now counted, Moor has 1374 of the 2493 votes cast in the mayor’s race. There are  still 161 provisional ballots that remain to be counted. Provisional ballots are cast when it’s unclear if a voter is qualified to vote. In the next few days, county election officials will determine which of the 161 provisionals should be counted.

But even if all 161 of the provisional ballots are counted — and Moor [right] gets none of those votes — he would still be over the 50 percent threshold to avoid a run-off. In that case, there would be 2654 votes cast, and Moor would need 1328. He currently has 1374 votes. The second highest vote-getter was Remond Palmer of the A-Team ticket with 696, followed by incumbent Myra Campbell with 344 and Harold Suggs with 79.

That would make Moor the first directly-elected Mayor in Asbury Park’s history. Voters approved a change-of-government ballot question last year, which, among other changes, makes the mayor directly elected by the voters. The mayor remains a member of the council, and the primary power of the position is to preside over council meetings. The city manager is the CEO of the city government, who runs day-to-day operations.

Moor’s Asbury Together council running mates — incumbent Amy Quinn, Joe Woerner, Jesse Kendle and Barbara Clayton — have already declared victory. All five are now scheduled to be sworn-in on January 1.

[Shown at top are Asbury Together candidates Moor, Quinn, Kendle, Woerner and Clayton.]

The Monmouth County Board of Elections did disqualify 353 vote-by-mail ballots. If Palmer chooses to appeal that ruling to the Superior Court and those votes are counted, that potentially could put Moor below the 50 percent threshold, forcing a run-off. But Moor’s victory likely would be certified before that appeal is decided by a court. A Judge would have to vacate Moor’s victory and order the run-off between Moor and Palmer.

Last year, the Board of Elections disqualified VBM ballots for reasons similar to its disqualifications this year. An appeal of the board’s actions last year was made by a prior A-Team slate running in that 2013 race. A judge denied the appeal.

All the disqualified VBM ballots and the uncounted provisional ballots, which together total 514 additional votes if all were counted, are not enough to change the results of the council race. Asbury Together’s victory margin of 753 votes for its four council candidates is larger than those uncounted votes.

In the council race, the following are the unofficial vote totals as provided by City Clerk Kay and county election officials: Asbury Together candidates Quinn 1653, Kendle 1592, Joe Woerner 1561 and Barbara Clayton 1546. The A-Team’s Duanne Small at 793 votes, Kevin Saunders, Jr. 772 votes, Rosetta Johnson 721 and Derrick Grant 684.

————————————————————

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook,  Twitter and Instagram.

---