A council candidate in Roselle who lost the Democratic primary by three votes is seeking a recount
Cynthia Johnson lost the contest for an at-large borough council seat to incumbent Denise Wilkerson, 1,496 to 1,493 – a margin of one-tenth of one percent.
Alyssa Duffy Zara, an attorney representing Johnson, said the election “involved a statistically narrow margin, making it particularly susceptible to counting or tabulation errors that could materially impact the outcome.” She also noted issues involving the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission changing voter registrations that may have disenfranchised voters.
“It is imperative that the Board of Elections takes a closer look at the count of provisional or vote-by-mail ballots which were rejected because of improper voter registrations and ensure that the voters were properly counted,” she said.
Assemblyman Reginald Atkins, the Roselle Democratic municipal chairman, told the New Jersey Globe that the closeness of the primary was an indication of how divided the borough is politically.
“I hope once this is decided, we can all come together,” Atkins said.
There is no Republican candidate, and without a write-in campaign, the Democratic primary is tantamount to victory.
Despite the closeness of the race, there is no guarantee that Superior Court Judge John Deitch will grant the recount. New Jersey does not have automatic recounts, regardless of the closeness of an election.
In 2023, Superior Court Judge Robert Gardner rejected a request for a recount in a Caldwell general election where the plurality was just four votes.