Oakland recount doesn’t change winner, but margin was 41% off; Essex judge denies recount in 4-vote race

If you’ve seen one judge, you’ve seen one judge.

In Oakland, where Mayor Linda Schwager lost re-election by 56 votes, Superior Court Judge Peter Greiger granted her request for a recount.  While the outcome didn’t change, the numbers did – significantly.

Today’s recount added 84 votes for Schwager and 50 for her Republican challenger, Eric Kulmala.  That cut Kulmala’s margin of victory from 56 to 33, a 41.1% difference from the certified count

But in Caldwell, where just four votes separated two candidates for a borough council seat, another judge, Robert Gardner, curiously denied a recount entirely.

That leaves Democrat Vivian Rodeffer as the winner over Republican Matt Giermanski.

Gardner said that Giermanski is free to challenge the results of the election without a recount, an interpretation of election law that is enormously inconsistent with how most judges up and down the state view recounts.  In nearly every case, a four-vote margin out of nearly 1,900 votes would merit a judge’s approval of a recount.

A recount is scheduled in Morris County on Tuesday for the Parsippany Township Council race, where Democrat Judy Hernandez leads Republican Adam Kandil by one vote.