Henry Leading By Three Votes

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Dec. 22, 2010)

SOUTH AMBOY — At a hearing last week before Superior Court Judge Phillip

Paley, sitting in New Brunswick, it was ordered by the Judge that six

“misplaced” provisional ballots from the disputed Nov. 2 South Amboy mayoral

election be opened and counted.

This was done at the Middlesex County Board of Elections Headquarters on

Jersey Avenue, New Brunswick, with the determination that three votes were

cast for City Council President Fred Henry, the Democratic nominee for Mayor,

and three votes were cast for Independent candidate for Mayor Vincent Mackiel.

In the tie-vote contest between Henry and Independent candidate Mary

O’Connor, that left Henry with a three-vote lead prior to individual ballot

challenges, which were scheduled for Monday, Jan. 10, at 8:30 a.m. before Paley

after a telephone conference with the Judge two days after the hearing.

Attorneys Michael Baker represented Henry, and Christopher Struben

represented O’Connor at the hearing. Representing the Board of Elections was Deputy

Attorney General Donna Kelly.

Struben had asked that the six ballots, which were discovered following a

recount requested and paid-for by O’Connor, not be counted because “the

security and integrity of the ballot procedures were not followed” in that all

of the “affirmations” were torn from the envelopes which held the ballots.

Kelly said the Board had kept the ballots locked inside a room in its

Jersey Avenue offices within an envelope.

“The question is, ‘Were the ballots compromised during the past 6

weeks?’” Paley said.

Turning to the lawyers, the Judge asked, “What if there was solid-proof of

security? Would you accept the ballots?”

Kelly replied that she directed the Board to put the opened ballots inside

another envelope, and “they were put in a box and locked in a closet.” She

went-on to explain the process of maintaining a provisional ballot.

There were 22 provisional ballots submitted, three of which were voided by

the Board’s staff after painstaking research of the registration rolls. But

of the 19 remaining ballots that should have been put-through the scanner,

there were only 13 the day they were counted by the Board.

Kelly maintained that everything was “done according-to procedure,” and

that there was “no indication that any unauthorized person had access to the

ballots.”

Thus, she said, there were “six valid votes that need to be counted.”

Baker agreed with Kelly. He also stated that “no one slipped-in any

ballots.”

Struben disagreed and stated, “The problem here is security of the ballots.”

He maintained that the “chain-of-custody” was broken when the six ballots

were lost, and again when they were found and opened.

Struben went-on to cite the law, which states that if there is any

discrepancy and the ballots in-question would change the result, the court has to

hear them.

Paley said he wanted “all the votes to be counted” and so-ordered.

Following that, Struben “will have the right to challenge the results” of the

counting.

The Judge set Thursday, Dec. 16, at 4 p.m. as the date and time for a

conference call with the attorneys regarding any challenges and another court

date.

With that, O’Connor, members of her team and her attorney went to Jersey

Avenue for the opening and counting of the six “misplaced” provisional

ballots, while the only person from Henry’s team who attended the counting was

Baker. Henry and his team were in court, but they did not go to Jersey Avenue.

At the Board’s office, the ballots were opened and counted.

After the Council meeting which followed the the opening and counting of

the six ballots but was before the conference call, Henry explained that he

left without going to Jersey Avenue because “I was happy to get out of there.

“The ballots weren’t counted the first time, and they should have,” he

said. “I don’t think they were tampered-with in any way. I think they got the

count right this time.”

Henry said that “it’s the American way of doing things that all the votes

are counted,” and “to suppress them as she (O’Connor) wanted to do is

wrong.”

Asked if he was ready to be sworn-in at the Council Reorganization, which

City Clerk Kathleen Vigilante said will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 5, Henry

replied, “At this point, yes.”

After the conference call, Paley scheduled another hearing on votes that

were cast and not counted, votes that were not cast, and allegations that some

of the voters do not live in South Amboy.