Old Bridge do-over election still set for March 22 after Supreme Court rejects case

The New Jersey Supreme Court will not hear an appeal of an Old Bridge election challenge, which means voters will decide who will hold the Ward 4 Township Council seat in a March 22 do-over election.

The top court denied a bid by Democrat Jill DeCaro to stop the new election.

DeCaro had ousted Republican incumbent Mark Razzoli last November by 11 votes, but Superior Court Judge Thomas Daniel McCloskey invalidated the election results after determining that 27 voters received the wrong ballot and 17 of them voted.

McCloskey found the state Division of Elections at fault, saying their statewide voter database didn’t properly follow boundaries set in the 2011 ward redistricting map put voters from the odd numbered homes on one side of Cymbeline Drive in Ward 2, and the even numbered homes on the opposite side of Cymbeline Drive residing in the Ward 4.

Attorneys for DeCaro asked the Supreme Court to hearing the case after Appellate Court Judge Carmen Messano agreed with McCloskey that some Cymbeline Drive residents have been registered in the wrong ward for several years.

Old Bridge is the third do-over election for New Jersey this year.

Republicans won a February 15 election for a seat on the Maywood Borough Council.  The November election had resulted in a tie.

Voters in South Toms River will go to the polls on March 15 to decide the fate of a November 2020 race that ended in a tie.  Extended court battles and an appellate court that seemed to be in no apparent hurry led to this seat being unfilled for more than a year.