Well it’s been an interesting election, that’s for sure. First let me congratulate Mr. Borek, Mr. Maher, and Ms. Samonte for their victories. While it is not the final result I believe is best for this town, 30 percent of voters showed up at the polls and have spoken. Yes, less than a 30 percent turnout.
All along, my goal was to get the voters to choose candidates and not “teams.” But the deck is clearly stacked against that. The ballot itself promotes the “teams” over the “candidate” mentality by its very layout. Ask yourselves why in a non-partisan election, the names of candidates are not listed top to bottom. Why are they in columns? Once I became a “write-in candidate,” my goal of winning a seat to keep one “team” from winning all three seats became a long shot. So I adjusted my goals. While the number one goal was still to keep one team from getting all the seats, I was most likely not going to be the spoiler. And in the end, Bryan Maher became that spoiler.
The results of this election were like no other in West Windsor. Even the township clerk commented that voters chose candidates rather than teams this time. Every district was different. There was no consistency. This is the first time that a team had been split up and the closest election ever. I take pride that I caused that. I took votes from other candidates, promoted the idea of choosing people over parties, and campaigned for the candidates who I thought would do the best job along with me.
But I clearly scared a lot of people. Scared them enough to put anonymous full page ads in the paper with half-truths, to lie in letters to the editor, to kick over and remove my campaign signs, to keep me from a public debate, and to do other horrible things that they will be held accountable for.
Now that the final count is certified, I think it’s important that a few things be pointed out. The first is the 1,291 undervote, which was double the Mercer County average and 10 times higher than in the 2007 election, when we had three open seats as well. This means that 1,291 votes were missing or not cast. Each voter could choose three candidates. The undervote happens when someone chooses fewer than the three choices. In 2007 there were only 167 undervotes (1.7 percent). What would cause the undervote to go from 1.7 percent to 10.6 percent? And why was West Windsor’s undervote more than double the county average?
One explanation for a large portion of this is that people who attempted to do a write-in vote did not press the enter key before pressing the VOTE button. This had been confirmed by many who attempted to vote for me. It’s an unfortunate result of being a write-in candidate. Either that, or votes that were cast were not counted, which is even scarier. But this is something that should be looked at and questioned. Why a 10-times increase in undervotes from the last election? Think about it. Did the voter’s intention really matter?
Next, I want to address the full page ad and David Kohn’s letter to the editor in the last issue that were meant to humiliate me and my family. The WW-P News had posted my response on their site but it has since been removed. It can be found at https://harris.vew.cc While it has very little relevance now that the damage has been done, the facts are there for anyone who is interested.
In his letter to the editor, David Kohn claimed I took out words and changed the context when I publicly shared content from the blog that his wife (candidate Lauren Kohn) removed from the Internet. I did not. This was a complete fabrication by Mr. Kohn, and he knew I would not be able to respond to in time before the election. He also knew that I could prove he was lying. I have printouts, digital files and links to existing content on the Internet that show that I did not remove or change any of her words. You can see the original images of the blog post at https://harris.vew.cc as well. But who cares about the truth anyway?
So I ask, what is so scary about an independent candidate who actually wants to represent the residents in a non-partisan town? What is so scary that respected, grown adults will spend money on full page ads and postcards using fake names, lie, break the law, knowingly cover up information that the public should know, kick over campaign signs like children, make threats of retaliation against my family, and commit easily proven acts of libel, slander, and abuse of power?
As I was quoted as saying recently, if this is any indication of how people in our state and federal government act, we are all doomed. I am ashamed to have even participated in this process, and I urge the residents of this town to get involved, start asking questions, and start holding people accountable for their actions.
Greg Harris
(Soon to be former resident of) West Windsor
