Bedminster Democrats contest 11 votes

[Lenape85]

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/somerset/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1106117607288930.xml

BY MATTHEW J. DOWLING
Star-Ledger Staff
Bedminster Democrats seeking to overturn the slim five-vote victory by a Republican candidate in the November township committee race identified 11 votes yesterday they contend could be invalid because the voters moved from the township prior to the election.

Superior Court Judge Victor Ashrafi granted attorneys for Democratic candidate Allen Mass another week to investigate the legal residency of those 11 voters and attempt to determine if enough of them voted for GOP winner Kurt Joerger to influence the election.


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County election officials determined Joerger won the township committee seat 1,798 to 1,793. The Democrats have continued to contest the results on a number of grounds, including the most recent attempt to research home sales in the township to determine if some voters were no longer residents.

"There are enough votes at issue here to impact the results of the election," said Steve Edelstein, the attorney for Mass and the Bedminster Democratic Party. "We're faced now, from our point of view, with the prospect of running down voters. We can, in fairly short order, get the answers to the questions we need."

Edelstein said he already started issuing subpoenas to voters whose residency is in question and has had volunteers trying to track down people by phone.

Mark Sheridan, the attorney for Joerger, argued against Ashrafi allowing the Democrats to pursue yet another issue in an effort to prolong the case.

"We're just being run around in circles while the plaintiff throws everything against the wall," Sheridan said. "This is the ultimate fishing expedition."

After losing in the official recount, the Democrats filed the court challenge based on multiple problems they cited with the election process. Two issues remain before Ashrafi -- whether to count an absentee ballot sent from London and discrepancies in voting machines and paper stubs that put four votes in question.

Ashrafi said he considered the arguments on those two matters closed and planned to make a ruling Monday, when the additional evidence about the 11 voters with questionable residency is presented.

He also admonished the Democrats for not looking into the residency issue earlier.

"You had months to do this," Ashrafi said. "It's taken the court giving you day-by-day and week-by-week deadlines to do this."

The initial certified results from the November election gave Joerger a one-vote margin of victory. After the recount and challenges by the Democrats, that lead widened to the current five-vote spread.

Joerger has been serving on the township committee while the election results are argued in court. He was initially appointed to an unexpired term in September.



Matthew J. Dowling covers Somerset County courts. He can be reached at [e-mail] or [phone].

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