School board candidate leads by one vote in race where 96% of voters stayed home

The race for the Shrewsbury Township seat on the Tinton Falls school board is too close to call after a special election to break a 2023 tie has Sophia Lent leading Eileen Dowling by one vote, 14-13, in an election where a mere 4% of the 725 registered voters showed up yesterday.

Last year, no one filed for the Tinton Falls seat; Lent and Dowling ran as write-in candidates and tied.  Only 22 votes write-in votes came in a municipality that cast 244 votes in the race for State Senate in the 11th district. 

Two voters are listed as casting a ballot, but not for any candidate, and no provisional ballots were cast.  Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by 8 PM last night will be counted if they arrive at the Monmouth County Board of Elections by close of business on Monday.

In East Newark, a district with less than 300 students, an appointed school board of seven members is transitioning to an elected nine-member board, nobody filed for the new seats.  In write-in campaigns, Lisa Ditchlus won a 30-month term with 60 votes, 77% of the total votes cast, and Nidia Guerrero won an 18-month term, with 55 votes, 74% of the write-in ballots.