With election less than a month away, no news on Perth Amboy runoff rules

Twenty-nine days out from the election, Gov. Phil Murhpy’s administration has yet to issue guidance on Perth Amboy’s December runoff election.

“I’ve got no news on Perth Amboy … so nothing to update you on that,” the governor said during Monday’s COVID-19 briefing.

The governor gave no indication of when such guidance would come.

Six candidates — Mayor Wilda Diaz, Councilmen Helmin Caba, Joel Pabon Sr. and Fernando Irizarry, attorney Joe Vas and Trump supporter Justin Maldonado — are vying for the town’s mayorship.

That means there’s little chance any candidate will secure a majority of votes after polls close on Nov. 3, making a Dec. 8 runoff election a near certainty.

That presents a problem for election officials, who will spend weeks after Nov. 3 counting thousands upon thousands of mail-in ballots. During the primary, some counts took more than three weeks to complete, and while officials have had more time to prepare for the general election, vote counting will still likely take weeks.

It’s possible the race’s top two vote-getters will remain unknown until late November, giving the candidates — and, perhaps more importantly, election officials — as little as two weeks to campaign before Dec. 8.