An Edison school board candidate will remain on the November ballot after a Superior Court judge rejected a rival candidate’s bid to invalidate his nominating petitions.
Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez Jr. ruled that Bijal Parikh had submitted enough valid signatures to qualify for the November 3 election, upholding a determination by Middlesex County Clerk Nancy Pinkin.
David Suchocki Sr., who is also seeking a seat on the Edison Board of Education, challenged eight of the 30 signatures Parikh submitted. School board candidates in Edison need at least 25 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify for the ballot.
Pinkin reviewed the challenge and invalidated four signatures after determining that the signers were not registered to vote in Edison. That left Parikh with 26 valid signatures, one more than he needed.
Suchocki went to court after Pinkin’s office declined to identify which four signatures had been rejected or explain in detail how it determined the others were valid. He argued that the lack of an explanation rendered Pinkin’s decision arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.
Jimenez disagreed, saying Suchocki had offered nothing beyond his dissatisfaction with the clerk’s decision to demonstrate that she had acted improperly.
The judge said Pinkin’s August 5 letter showed that her office had examined voter-registration records and other relevant documents using the same process it ordinarily employs when reviewing objections to nominating petitions.
“No more effort is necessary,” Jimenez said in a three-page decision. “As a result, no hearing on the issue is required because no more information needs to be provided in this regard.”
The disputed signatures included those of voters whose addresses on Parikh’s petitions did not match the township’s voter-registration list, and others whose listed addresses were associated with different registered voters.
Parikh, who represented himself, submitted property tax and voter registration records in defense of three of the challenged signatures. He argued that spelling and minor address discrepancies did not make the signers unidentifiable or ineligible.
One signer listed 47 Dorothy Avenue as his address, while voter records placed him at 45 Dorothy Avenue. Parikh characterized that as a minor mistake that did not change the signer’s identity. He also disputed the spellings Suchocki used for two other petition signers.
Jimenez did not conduct a signature-by-signature review, instead finding no basis to second-guess Pinkin’s determination or require the constitutional officer to provide a more detailed account of her review.
“There is no basis provided, beyond plaintiff’s dissatisfaction, to conclude that the Middlesex County Clerk must be more specific and detailed in outlining how she fulfilled her obligations as a constitutional officer to ensure that a nomination process is legally sufficient,” Jimenez stated in a written decision.
In addition to Parikh and Suchocki, incumbent Anjana R. Patel, Niket Mull, Chang-Hui Shen, Wen Huang, and Gerald Shine are seeking three seats on the local school board.
Two incumbents, Virginia White and Christopher Lugo, are not seeking re-election.
Parikh ran three years ago and finished third in a field of six candidates, 361 votes behind Lugo.
In that election, controversial school board member Jerry Shi, one of the Edison Eight, was ousted by 214 votes.
Shi had served on the board since 2018 and was a central figure in one of Edison’s most notorious political scandals. A U.S. Postal Inspector identified him as a member of the “Edison Eight,” a group of political figures allegedly involved in producing and distributing a racist mailer during the 2017 school board race.
The flyer, which targeted Shi and his running mate, Falguni Patel, warned that “Chinese and Indians are taking over our town” and stamped the word “deported” over their photographs. Investigators alleged that the mailer was intended to generate sympathy and mobilize Asian American voters for the candidates it purported to attack. Shi denied involvement, and no charges were announced.
The Attorney General’s Office subpoenaed Edison records and empaneled a grand jury to investigate the flyer.
Shi also faced a complaint before the School Ethics Commission over his endorsement of mayoral candidate Mahesh Bhagia, whose brother was identified as another member of the Edison Eight. The commission rejected Shi’s effort to have the complaint declared frivolous and sent the case to the Office of Administrative Law.
In 2022, a separate grand jury subpoena sought Shi’s emails during an investigation into the use of school district funds to construct and maintain cricket fields for adult leagues.
Shi regained his seat in 2024, finishing third in a field of seven candidates for three seats.
Shine is an ally of
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