Update: 332 mail ballots and about 170 provisional ballots unopened
Asbury election results could be affected
Approximately 170 provisional ballots and 332 vote by mail ballots from the Asbury Park city council election remain unopened this morning, according to the election offices in Freehold.
Of the 332 vote by mail [VBM] ballots not counted, election officials declined to state how many were voided outright for being completed incorrectly. Candidate Jim Keady of the A-Team ticket said last night that approximately 80 ballots were disqualified for that reason, and his ticket want the remaining 250 counted.
In addition, approximately 170 provisional ballots were cast in the council election, according to Superintendent of Elections Hedra Siskel. Her office will now evaluate each provisional ballot and make a report to the board of elections. That work is estimated to be completed by Friday, Siskel said. The board of elections will then decided which provisional ballots to open. The board also decides which VBM ballots to count.
Provisional ballots are cast by voters at the polls when their eligibility to vote is unclear, such as if they are already listed as casting a vote by mail ballot.
Unofficial results from the Monmouth County Clerk showed One Asbury candidates John Moor, Amy Quinn and Myra Campbell winning three of the five council seats, with incumbents John Loffredo and Susan Henderson from the Forward Asbury ticket in the lead for the other two.
The A-Team has consulted Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett as an attorney to mount a legal challenge to count the unopened ballots, Keady said last night.
The use of messengers to deliver vote by mail ballots to voters has been controversial in the campaign, with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office investigating their use in the Asbury Park election. About 270 voters returned such ballots that had been delivered to them by a messenger.
Only the A-Team slate has acknowledged using campaign workers and volunteers as messengers. All the other tickets in the race said they did not use messengers.
Members of the A-Team slate had encouraged their supporters already voting by mail to also cast a provisional ballot in case their VBM ballot was disqualified.
The highest vote-getter, Moor, garnered 699 votes, with Quinn in second at 693. Both ran on the One Asbury ticket. Their running-mate Campbell got 598. Incumbents John Loffredo and Susan Henderson on the Forward Asbury slate received 640 and 608 votes respectively.
A-Team candidate Keady got 409 votes. His A-Team running mates Duanne Small got 405; Daniel Harris garnered 388; Remond Palmer received 381; and Nora Hyland got 359.
Five other candidates also ran ahead of the A-Team slate in the unofficial results. Those candidates were One Asbury’s Joe Woerner with 566 votes and Talesha Crank with 441 votes. From the Forward Asbury ticket, incumbent Kevin Sanders was in sixth place overall with 574 votes, Will Potter received 434 votes and Gregory Hopson got 428 votes.
