Anyone walking into a West Windsor voting booth on election day this year would have seen a section clearly labeled with the names of the three mayoral candidates and the six town council candidates. The names were arranged in three vertical columns from left to right.
The first column showed incumbent mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh on top, and below him incumbent Council member Linda Geevers and candidate Peter Mendonez.
The middle column showed mayoral candidate Rick Visovsky on top, with Kamal Khanna and Eric Payne below him.
The column on the right had mayoral candidate Hemant Marathe at top with Debra Hepler and Martin Whitfield below him.
Three columns, three slates, you might think. But you would be incorrect. In fact, the candidates for council were all separated from the mayoral running mates on the ballot. Hsueh’s running mates were below Visovsky. Marathe’s running mates were below Hsueh. And Visovsky’s running mates were below Marathe.
How could this have happened? It was neither an error nor an act of political chicanery. The ballot is controlled by the state; and, according to state election laws, candidates are placed on the ballot according to the job title. Under West Windsor’s form of mayor/council government, “Mayor” is one title; “Council is another.” So they are placed independently of each other.
But there’s more: under state law the placement of each job title in a non-partisan election is literally controlled by “the luck of the draw.” The Township Clerk places each job title in a hat, mayoral candidates in the first round, and council candidates in the second round, and the order of each is determined by which is picked first, second, and third. So this year Hsueh was picked to be placed first on the ballot in the “mayor” category, but Geevers/Mendonez were picked first in the “council” category.
The result: A surprisingly strong showing by Mendonez, the youngest candidate (at 29) and the newest resident (he moved to town in 2012), who gained a seat on council over incumbent Khanna. Hsueh, who has had strong coattails in prior elections, may this time have assisted opposing candidates, Geevers and Mendonez.
How can it be avoided in the future? According to the County Clerk’s office, the only way to ensure that the candidates are lined up with their running mates is to change the government from non-partisan to partisan. Township attorney Mike Herbert explained, “The township could choose to become a partisan government while maintaining the current Mayor/Council structure. However, the issue would have to be decided by voter referendum.”
Herbert (and also Marathe) noted that this was the first year that all municipal elections were in November, rather than April, which resulted in a crowded ballot, potentially further confusing voters.
The bottom line is that voters needed to know the names of the people they intended to vote for. In this election, voting “down the line” simply did not work.
