From N.J. to South Carolina and back: ex-Raritan councilman seeks return to local office

A Republican candidate for the Raritan Borough Council registered to vote today, more than two weeks after he filed nominating petitions attesting to his status as a legal voter.

Still, it’s not clear if there will be any challenge to the candidacy of Donald Tozzi, who serve as a councilman from 2012 until early 2020, when he resigned and moved to South Carolina.

Now he’s back in New Jersey and wants to be a councilman again.

Tozzi says he meets the one-year residency requirement, saying he has a lease and a driver’s license that shows he moved back prior to November 2022.

He told the New Jersey Globe that he registered to vote in Raritan last December but just found out it wasn’t processed.

“Somebody told me I wasn’t registered, and I ran back and registered today,” Tozzi said.  “Thank God I knew about this cause I’d have never found out.

Democratic Councilman Pablo Orozco told him about his registration status, he said.

Tozzi is running with Joan Hutzler, who was appointed to fill his council seat three years ago.  The other seat is currently held by Orozco, who is running for mayor.

Records show that Tozzi registered to vote in South Carolina on January 21, 2020, and that he voted there that year.

He acknowledged not voting at all in 2022.

“This is just another example of the disarray in the Somerset County Republican Organization,” said Peg Schaffer, the Somerset County Democratic chair.  “From Bernardsville to Raritan to the county level, this is why voters made the choice five years ago not to trust these people with governing.”