Robbinsville voters elected three newcomers to the township Board of Education on Nov. 8, rejecting re-election bids by Christopher Emigholz, Kerriann Fox and Lauren Paluzzi.
Peter Oehlberg, Jeffrey Pierro and his running mate, Raghu Nandan, received the most votes, according to unofficial results as of Nov. 21.
A total of seven candidates were running for three-year seats on the board. In addition to the above candidates, Allison Prabhakar—who was running on a slate with Fox and Paluzzi— also lost. Vote totals were as follows: Pierro 2,382; Nandan, 2,107; Peter Oehlberg, 1,853; Emigholz, 1,624; Lauren Paluzzi, 1,298; Prabhakar, 1,189; and Fox, 1,097.
Also on the ballot were two local public questions. Approved was a measure that would combine the township’s zoning and planning boards into a consolidated Land Use Board (2,582 yes, 1,801 no).
But voters rejected a question that would have increased Robbinsville’s open space tax by 2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The additional revenue could have been used to be acquire, improve, maintain and preserve open space. (1877 yes, 2591 no).
This year’s election was not without its problems, though. An election day glitch throughout all towns in Mercer County delayed tabulation of the results for several days. A problem scanning ballots cast on election day meant that voters had to submit their choices via paper ballots and sharpies. The problem was discovered by poll workers shortly after the poll opened, said Nathaniel Walker, Mercer County superintendent of elections
According to officials, coding marks printed on the paper ballots was not being accepted by the scanning machines. Officials have called for investigations into the cause of the problem amidst allegations of corruption by some members of the public.
Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello said that she has asked the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office to look into “whether the scanning problem occurred based on an error, or whether something was intentionally done to create chaos and distrust in the election system.”
She added: “We are not suspicious of any specific wrongdoing, but we do need to investigate the matter fully. At the end of the day, as county clerk, I must certify the election results so I have an interest in the integrity of our system.”
County Executive Brian Hughes also called for the matter to be looked into and for changes in the way elections are run in Mercer.
“We’ve got too many people in control and the quality of our elections has suffered as a result, undermining peoples’ faith in the democratic process,” Hughes said.
In Mercer County, there are three separate entities that play a role in elections—the Board of Elections, the Superintendent of Elections and the Office of the County Clerk.
“After issues in the last two elections, I have come to the conclusion that we must fundamentally change the management of the election process in Mercer County because it is clearly not working,” the county executive said.
There was also a problem in Robbinsville with missing ballots. According to Mayor David Fried, votes from one district in his town were missing.
The missing votes were tracked down by the following day, but the township received no official explanation from election officials about the cause for the problem. For more information, see Fried’s column on page 23 of this issue.
Robbinsville High School.,
