Ruiz will be certified as winner despite ballot blunder

When the New Jersey State Board of Canvassers meets this morning, they are expected to certify the election of Teresa Ruiz as the winner of the State Senate seat in the 29th district,  where an independent candidate was left off the ballot in two Hudson County municipalities.

Pablo Olivera, the candidate who missed out on votes in Harrison and East Newark, did not respond to a letter from the Division of Elections asking if he wished to contest the results.  He was notified on Friday that he had until 5 PM yesterday to do so.

Olivera, who has mounted fourteen campaigns for public office over the last two decades, believes a challenge won’t go anywhere.

“You know as well as I how corrupt Essex and Hudson counties are.   You know if I challenge the results, nothing is going to happen,” Olivera told the New Jersey Globe.  “That is why the majority of the people do not vote at all.  They lost the faith in the system.”

A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, Alicia D’Alessandro, said the Board of Canvasser’s role is to canvass election results from county election boards and certify them based on votes cast.

“No statute authorizes or empowers the Board of State Canvassers to withhold certification of the results of the votes cast for any person in the election,
said D’Alessandro.  “However, candidates may have the right to pursue an election contest in court in certain circumstances.”

D’Alessandro said that Lt. Governor Tahesha Way, the Secretary of State, “encourages and reminds county clerks to ensure that their ballots are accurate so that no candidate is omitted.”

Ruiz, the Senate Majority Leader, won a massive 83% landslide in her bid for a sixth term.  The inclusion of Olivera in the Hudson portion of the Newark-based district would unlikely have affected those results, although the number of Harrison and East Newark residents who didn’t vote exceeded Ruiz’s 6,415 vote victory over Republican Maritza Matthews and Olivera.

The ballot blunder was not Ruiz’s fault; it was not her responsibility to check if Olivera’s name appeared on the ballot in Hudson.  Essex County included Olivera on their ballot, and he received just 181 votes.

Legislative redistricting added two Hudson County municipalities, Harrison and East Newark, into the Newark-based 29th district.  It’s the first time Essex and Hudson shared a legislative district in over 40 years.

This story was updated at 11:38 AM with comment from D’Alessadro.