RECOUNT LIKELY

Henry Leads O’Connor By Single Vote

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Nov. 10, 2010)

SOUTH AMBOY — Democratic City Council President Fred Henry was declared the

winner of a four-way race for Mayor late last week after 12 of the city’s

21 provisional election-ballots were counted by the Middlesex County Board of

Elections at its New Brunswick headquarters, putting him over the top with

one vote more than Independent challenger Mary O’Connor.

But O’Connor was expected to file her request for a recount sometime before

Friday, the deadline for her to do so, which would reopen the question of

validity of the votes which were counted in the Nov. 2 election of a

successor to Mayor John O’Leary, who decided in March not to seek an unprecedented

seventh four-year term as Chief Executive of the “Pleasant Little City.”

A recount would encompass a review of the tapes from the voting-machines,

including any discrepancies between the number of voting-authorities and the

number of recorded votes; the mail-in ballots, formerly “absentee votes,”

and the provisional ballots.

“I thank all of my supporters who seek a better future for South Amboy,”

O’Connor said in a prepared statement issued after the results were announced

in New Brunswick. “They brought us this far, and I will not allow their

votes to be improperly-overpowered.

“Fred Henry ran his campaign using lies, distortions and trickery,” she

continued. “We want to make sure that he did not run the polls the same way.

This election is not over. A recount is being requested.”

Henry did not respond to a request for comment.

With 2,568 votes cast, last week’s balloting ended with Henry receiving

1,075 unofficial votes on the machines based in various public buildings

throughout the one-square-mile municipality, following a contentious campaign

which was branded by many observers as the city’s “dirtiest,” to 1,061 for

O’Connor, who lost to O’Leary in 2006 by about 200 votes — a 14-vote lead for

the 18-year incumbent Councilman. Two other Independents for Mayor, Vincent

Mackiel with 192 and John Dragotta with 93, trailed.

The counting of mail-in ballots increased Henry’s unofficial vote-total to

1,106 to 1,098 for O’Connor on Election Night — a spread of just eight.

That difference was shaved to just three the following day, when a bag

containing more mail-in ballots was discovered in the First Ward and immediately

transported to New Brunswick.

That set the stage for the counting of 13 of the 21 provisional ballots,

overseen by Administrator James Vokral. Eight ballots were voided by the staff

because of obvious deficiencies, such as an admitted Sayreville resident

who voted in South Amboy.

O’Connor was accompanied by former Councilwoman Beverly Samuelson, Lori

Papernik and attorney Sean Connelly, while Henry was accompanied by

Councilman-elect Michael “Mickey” Gross, Housing Authority Executive Director Thomas

O’Leary, the Mayor’s brother, and an attorney representing Middlesex County

Democrats. The provisional ballots, still sealed in special bags, were split

between the two groups, seated at a distance from each-other. The

names-and-addresses were examined for about two hours.

During the next stage of the counting, the Board — two Democrats and two

Republicans — convened at 4 p.m. to go-over eight ballots which were

challenged by O’Connor. Henry did not challenge any of the provisional ballots.

The Board voted unanimously to accept seven of the challenged ballots and

to reject one of them. Those seven went back into the mix with the five

unchallenged ballots, and were pumped-through a counting machine, after the rest

of the county’s provisionals.

After the South Amboy results were read aloud by County Clerk Elaine Flynn,

Henry was hugged by Gross and O’Leary, and the three men left quickly.

On Election Night, the 2010 campaign for two at-large Council seats and one

Ward Council seat resulted in the Democratic Council nominees easily

defeating their opponents, newcomer Gross leading with 1,135 unofficial votes,

followed by incumbent Councilman Joseph Connors with 1,014, Republican nominee

Saverio Sagliocco with 982, Independent Eugene “Gene” Reagan with 751 and

GOP nominee David Longenhagen with 680. Recently-appointed First Ward

Councilman Donald Applegate, running unopposed, received 463 unofficial votes.

In addition to the usual rash of reports of campaign-signs being torn-down

or put-up without authorization, this year’s local contest saw the

resurrection on a weekly basis of a bimonthly community newspaper which was defunct

for about 10 years, now unabashedly promoting the Democratic ticket; the

anonymous distribution of one flier depicting an O’Connor supporter in a Nazi

uniform, and another flier attacking O’Connor as a “terrorist,” and the

mysterious “endorsement” of Mackiel’s candidacy by a non-existent “South Amboy

Tea Party.”

During Election Day itself, numerous complaints reportedly were made to the

Police Department, the Board of Elections and the state Attornet General’s

Office, which is believed to have sent an observer to the city to monitor

the voting.

One Council candidate was accused of “electioneering” at the Senior

Resource Center, S. Stevens Avenue, and was asked to leave; a photographer from an

out-of-county daily newspaper allegedly took random photos at a

polling-place and was escorted out, and eggs were said to have been thrown at an

O’Connor supporter’s car by Henry supporters, leading to a heated confrontation

involving the driver’s brother which police officers broke-up. There were

unconfirmed reports that off-duty police were called-out by Police Chief Darren

LaVigne to maintain order.

The local race followed back-to-back municipal tax-increases of 38 percent

last year and 12 percent this year, plus an increase of over five percent in

school taxes approved in-between by the incumbent Council.

Apparently with much reluctance, Council members voted to adopt an

Amendment to the Calendar Year 2010 Budget and the Budget itself without including

$800,000 as anticipated revenue, after the state Department of Community

Affairs (DCA) “would not allow us to put that money in our Budget for this year

as anticipated revenue,” Henry explained after the vote.

That Amendment to the CY 2010 Budget is expected to increase local taxes by

another $722,576, on top of the $39 hike previously-announced by the

Administration and the Council on a home assessed at $266,000, the average in

South Amboy, from the unamended spending plan. Using the numbers provided with

the CY 2010 Budget as introduced, the amended Budget is expected to increase

the municipal portion of taxes on the average home by $268.

During the campaign, the challengers criticized the tax-hikes, pledging to

be more-frugal than the incumbents with spending and to encourage more

commercial tax-ratables to relocate to South Amboy to replace revenues now

needed to be drawn from taxing residential properties.