Clerk admits error that cost election winner his seat (Updated)

Update: Brian Wittig is asking a judge to order his certification as a county committeeman, and is seeking an order restraining the Rockaway Township Republican organization from holding a reorganization meeting until the matter is resolved.

The acting Rockaway Township Municipal Clerk admitted to a mistake that led to the candidate who received the most votes in a Republican county committee race not being certified as the winner of the election, but rejected the idea that she was playing politics.

Since no candidate filed for the Ward 4, District 3 seat, Brian Wittig conducted a write-in campaign and received six votes – four more than he needed to secure the seat – and no votes were cast for any other candidate.

But the acting clerk, Adele Wadleigh, failed to process the write-in votes, and by the time she did, on June 24, she had missed Morris County Clerk Ann Grossi’s June 23 deadline to certify the primary election results.  That means Wittig can’t have the seat he won.

There are political overtones to the county committee seat.  Wittig is an ally of former Council President Tucker Kelley, who defeated incumbent Rachael Brookes in the June 10 Republican primary with 62% of the vote.  Brookes, who is also the GOP municipal chair, had advocated for Wadleigh’s hiring.

Wadleigh said her failure to certify Wittig as the winner was an accident.

“Any delay was a logistical oversight due to time-sensitive deadlines and daily business, not intentional,” she said.  “ I do not know Brian Wittig and would never tamper with election results.”

According to Wadleigh, she was the only clerk’s office employee in the office on June 19 when she received final election results, including provisional and vote-by-mail ballots, and that she had other job-related things to do that day besides certifying elections.

“My extensive daily responsibilities — including vital records, licenses, elections, public counter service, and Township Council duties — created a significant workload,” Wadleigh said.  “Despite these demands, I diligently worked to meet the overarching directive to certify election results by Monday, June 23rd. On Friday, June 21st, I continued managing daily tasks while meticulously inputting all ballot results into the county’s Excel sheet for accurate certification.”

Wadleigh claims that at 10 AM on June 23, she received an email from the county clerk’s office setting a noon deadline for certification, something she says was “earlier than anticipated.”

“On Tuesday morning, June 24th, upon speaking with Brian Wittig, I discovered an error on my part and immediately sent him his certification letter,” Wadleigh told the New Jersey Globe.  “The county clerk’s office informed me that they could not accept the statement of acceptance past the (statutory) deadline, advising Mr. Wittig to seek appointment by the Republican Chair or pursue court relief.”

Grossi told the New Jersey Globe that she didn’t have the legal authority to set the deadline aside.

Wittig is expected to ask a judge to order the certification of his election.  He’s already missed the Morris County Republican election of officers, and could miss the reorganization of the Rockaway GOP on July 1.

Wadleigh has not responded to a question about whether the Township of Rockaway and its municipal attorney, John Iaciofano, would proactively go to court and ask that the election winner be seated.  Iaciofano is the miniaturized political boss of Rockaway with a stake in Brookes’ re-election.