A lawsuit challenging the results of the Loch Arbour non-partisan municipal election has been dropped.
“Over the past several days, the parties have engaged in settlement discussions to try and amicably resolve the case. We have been unable to come to mutually agreeable terms,” said attorney Scott Salmon, who told Superior Court Judge Linda Grasso Jones that they would still dismiss the case.
A group of seventeen local voters want the election overturned after alleging in a lawsuit that non-residents cast more than eighty illegal voters.
The race featured a dazzling surge in voter registration in the small, wealthy Jersey Shore community in advance of the May 14 election. Registration in Loch Arbour, jumped 92% from last year – the largest increase in the state.
The Monmouth County Prosecutor launched a probe into the voter registration issues in Loch Arbour, along with Allenhurst and Deal. They are expected to announce shortly that they have found no criminal wrongdoing.
The lawsuit also claims that winner Saul Tawil, who is now the mayor, did not meet the one-year residency requirement to hold public office.
Former Mayor Paul Fernicola was running unopposed for re-election to the Board of Commissioners when he announced two weeks before Election Day that he was dropping out of the race; he cited the ongoing harassment of him and his family by local residents as the reason for his sudden exit.
Incumbents Jack Hedaya (114) and Jason Elo (113) won new terms, but the third seat was captured by Tawil. With 104 votes, Tawil defeated Fernicola (69), whose name remained on the ballot, Jeffrey Schwartz (62), and two former commissioners, Alfred Cheswick (61) and Denis D’Angelo (2).