ELECTION UPDATES

2020 Primary

With mail-in ballots sent to all registered Democrats and Republicans, most counties in New Jersey strained to count all the ballots returned on a timely basis. Monmouth County is no exception. In fact, the New Jersey National Guard was called to help count ballots. As of Friday, after all mailed-in ballots were counted, we have the following unofficial results for the Holmdel Republican primary (there is no challenger to Joe Romano in the Democratic primary):

DJ Luccarelli 1,327

Greg Buontempo 1,146

Vicky Flynn 1,096

Ronald Emma 1,012

The above results are unofficial because there were 466 provisional ballots cast at Holmdel polling stations and over 17,000 overall in Monmouth County that have not been counted. They are scheduled for this week and expect to take days to be fully counted. Also, due to a recent lawsuit settlement, any voters whose ballot was not counted due to “signature don’t match” have an option to provide proof so that their ballot may be counted.

Surprising Twist in 2019 November Election Lawsuit

After a recount, the Board of Elections certified Prakash Santhana as the winner of last year’s November general election and made the results official. Chiung-Yin Liu, who ran with former-Mayor Eric Hinds, filed a lawsuit against Committeeman Prakash Santhana challenging the election results.

Things had been quiet for a while due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the pace has picked up significantly with a hearing now scheduled in August.

“What’s past is prologue.” – William Shakespeare

We have previously reported that, in contrast to what was happening in Middletown around the same time, Liu remained silent throughout the process in which Holmdel Township Committee investigation showed former-Mayor Eric Hinds attempted to divert money for an artificial turf field at the Swim Club that resulted in unauthorized expenses of $58,000 and was then censured for his conduct. She then later was a willing partner in “Bannergate” which violated the Board of Education policy against political signs on school property at a Holmdel High School football game. After Bannergate, a political mailer was sent to residents claiming a false and misleading statement that Liu was trying to make history as the first Asian-American to serve on the Township Committee. That honor belongs to David Chai, a Chinese descendant that worked for many years as an engineer at Bell Labs, who was not only on the Township Committee but also served as Mayor in 1999.

In February, Liu’s attorney filed an amended petition that named individuals whose ballots they seek to disqualified so that their votes would not be counted. Within hours of the filing of this amended petition, the names of these individuals, including the children of two current Holmdel elected officials, were made public. Perhaps not surprisingly, Liu’s running mate Hinds immediately cried “voter fraud”.

Dirty Politics?

New Jersey is notorious for dirty politics. Much of this is due to well-documented corruption but also the tricks and “changing the rules of engagement”, a la “Bridgegate”. Unfortunately, it seems that Holmdel is not exempt from dirty politics.

It used to be that an elected official is a public figure and is fair game but family is off limit. Now, it seems that it’s okay to make public the names of the children of public officials (and other individuals) and cry “voter fraud” even if it’s a subject of litigation to be determined by a legal process. Interestingly, there has been silence with no follow-up article by that same reporter even though investigators from the Board of Election have already looked into some of these allegations and, at least orally, have indicated that the ballots of those individuals appeared to be legal and acceptable to be counted.

On Monday of last week, Liu’s attorney proposed a “settlement” that would involve a runoff between Committeeman Santhana and Liu. The rationale offered for the “settlement’ was that it would save on legal costs with a pretty intense trial with multiple witnesses coming up.

However, in what could only be described as a bizarre twist, a threat was later made in lieu of this “settlement offer”.

Stay tuned. This lawsuit promises to have more surprises ahead.