There were few surprises at the polls when came to local races at in this year’s election on Nov 8.
The incumbents took all races for municipal government and the West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education.
Plainsboro featured contested races for two open seats on the Township Committee and one seat on the WW-P School Board. All results reported below are unofficial as of Nov. 21.
In the contest for two open three-year seats on the Township Committee, incumbent Democrats Edmund Yates (3,848 votes) and David Bander (3,913 votes) defeated their lone challenger—Republican Kristin Santizo (1,390 votes).
The re-election of Yates and Bander means that the Democrats will continue to hold a 5-0 lock on the Township Committee.
Meanwhile, in the race for a Plainsboro seat on the School Board, incumbent Robin Zovich (2,581 votes) defeated challenger Bill Beecroft (1,710 votes) to win re-election to a new three-year term.
In West Windsor, there was no election for mayor or council this year, and candidates were running unopposed for all three open positions on the school board.
Louisa Ho (5,288 votes) and Graelynn McKeown (5,154 votes) won election to three-year seats, and Shwetha Shetty (5,205 votes) won election to a one-year unexpired term.
In Mercer County, more people cast their ballots on election day (60,417) than by early voting and mail (39,413). A total of 42.27% of Mercer County’s 236,158 registered voters cast their ballots this year.
In Middlesex County, a total of 207,777 people cast ballots out of 564,454 registered voters — a turnout of 36.81%
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.
