Neptune City Council Race Tied

Neptune City Councilman Richard Pryor

Neptune City Councilman Richard Pryor, a Republican, is tied with Democratic challenger Michael Skudera now that the provisional ballots have been counted.

In the post-Election Day machine count, Pryor trailed Skudera by one vote.

Barring a change in the tally due to a recount, which neither side has announced, there will be a run-off election between Pryor and Skudera, on a date to be determined, most likely in mid-December.

Republicans are said to be reviewing the Vote-By-Mail applications from the City prior to deciding whether to file for a recount. Operatives of the notorious Asbury Park “A Team” are rumored to have managed the Vote-By-Mail operation for the Democrats.

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“A-Team” sues to overturn Asbury Park elections

UPDATE: AsburyParkSun reports that if the Monmouth County Board of Elections decision to not count the disqualified Vote By Mail ballots is overturned, that a runoff election between Mayor John Moor and Remond Palmer could be triggered.

Asbury Park Mayor-elect John Moor told MMM that he was informed by City Attorney Fredrick Raffetto this afternoon that the City has been served with a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of both the municipal and Board of Education elections that were held on November 4, 2014.  According to Moor’s recalculation, the plaintiffs are Remond Palmer, the “A-Team” candidate for mayor and Arva Council, an “A-Team” candidate for Board of Education.

Moor said that his understanding is that the plaintiffs are seeking to have the results of the election overturned and for the 353 Vote By Mail ballots disqualified by the Monmouth County Board of Election to be counted.

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Booker Condemns False Endorsement in Asbury Park Mayoral Race

In Asbury Park, a post card purported to be from Asbury Park Democrats, LLC has been mailed to voters with Senator Cory Booker’s endorsement of A-Team candidate for mayor Redmond Palmer.

Booker took to twitter to deny he endorsed anyone in the race.  Asbury Park Democratic Chairman Joe Grillo took a break from his fledgling campaign for Monmouth County Freeholder to say that the Asbury Park Democrats have not endorsed anyone in the mayoral race.

Media mogul Dan Jacobson has the full story at AsburyOverheard.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor should investigate this incident.  It is similar offense to the 4am robo call in the 13th legislative district primary in June of 2013 for which Leigh-Ann Bellew’s campaign manager Dwayne Horner was indicted.

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A-Team disenfranchises hundreds?

Asbury Park ballot applications wrong again

Dan Jacobson

By Dan Jacobson

ASBURY PARK — For weeks, I’ve been blasting the A-Team slate for taking custody and control of hundreds of vote-by-mail/absentee ballots, with their supporters and paid operatives delivering them to voters. The voter then completes the ballot and mails it back for counting — or the A-Team delivery person can even take them back. It’s absurd.

The A-Team led by Mayoral candidate Remond Palmer is on track to deliver 500 of these ballots, known as vote-by-mail [VBM] ballots. That’s the election right there. Of course, this law was originally for invalids or shut-ins who had trouble getting their mail and wanted an absentee ballot. The A-Team is trying to drive hundreds of votes through that loophole.

I’ve consistently said they’re doing it wrong. In fact, we went down this road last year, with the Board of Elections disqualifying 250 ballots the A-Team organization delivered to voters in the 2013 election. A Judge agreed and said the applications for the ballots were flawed and the ballots can’t be counted.

Guess what.

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‘A-Team’ hires Monmouth GOP Chairman To Challenge Asbury Park Election Results

John Bennett

The A-Team slate of candidates in the Asbury Park election has hired Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett as their attorney to challenge today’s election results.

Bennett told MMM’s Tommy DeSeno that he will be verifying what votes were not counted and why. He said he would also be looking at how many votes of the thrown out absentees may have voted provisionally and still need to be counted.

An A-Team campaign worker told DeSeno that the team believes they can pick up three of the five seats on the City Council. The didn’t win any seats in the unofficial count of machine and vote by mail (absentee) ballots.

The A-Team is comprised of former Councilman James Keady,  former board of education member Redmond Palmer, Duanne Small, Nora Hyland and Daniel Harris.  The top three A-Team candidates, Keady, Small and Harris,  would need to pick up approximately 200 votes that have been rejected in order to over come the leads of the bottom three “unofficial” winners, Myra Campbell, Sue Henderson and John Loffredo.

Keady received 409 votes in the unofficial tally; Small 405 and Harris 388.  Unofficial winners Loffredo received 640 votes, Henderson 608 and Campbell 598.

Four candidates of the 22 who ran, lost “unofficially” with more votes than the A-Team’s top three.  Incumbent Kevin Sanders, a former mayor and former Republican of the Forward Asbury slate received 574 votes, Joe Woerner of the One Asbury slate received 566 votes, Talesha Crank of One Asbury received 441 votes, William Potter of the Forward Asbury slate received 431 votes, and Gregory Hopson received 428 votes.

The top “unofficial” winners, John Moor with 699 votes and Amy Quinn with 693, both of One Asbury, appear to be safe in what appears to be an inevitable recounted elected.

UPDATE 11:42 PM  AsburyParkSun  reports that A-Team candidate Jim Keady claims that 332 mail-in ballots have not been counted.  Keady said 80 of the ballots were discarded because they were not filled in properly.

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Messenger Ballots: More Proof That Voter ID Laws Are Needed

By Tommy DeSeno

What’s a “messenger ballot?”  Excuse me if my answer is a bit sketchy, but I’m just learning about it from a group of bad guys who appear to be illegally exploiting it.

I don’t know if other states are doing this, the history of it, the need for it, etc., but here in New Jersey we are learning the perils of not having people show up to vote in person and present identification.

Apparently a “messenger ballot” is allowed when one person acts as a “messenger” for a voter, picks up forms for the voter to be allowed to vote by messenger, then votes for the voter by absentee ballot.

Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

Does the phrase “penchant for fraud” even cross the minds of legislatures when passing such a statute? Or, in a Democrat-controlled legislature like New Jersey, is fraud the goal?

Goal or not, it certainly seems to be the result in Asbury Park, a city poorer than most and more liberal than San Francisco (with a fraction of the feigned sophistication).

Residents of Asbury Park vote for their entire governing body (5 people) all at once, in an off year and in May — when no one is paying attention.

There are 22 people running this year – four “tickets” of 5 people and 2 independents.

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Sources: Monmouth County Prosecutor Raids ‘A-Team’ Campaign Office in Asbury Park

UPDATE: Asbury Park Sun is reporting that the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office executed a search warrant on the campaign office of ‘The A Team” this afternoon.  The report said that the investigators appeared to be looking for ballots.  Read the APS report here.

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MoreMonmouthMusings has confirmed that the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the “A-Team” ticket of Council candidates in upcoming Asbury Park municipal election.  That investigation included a visit to the campaign’s Main Street office today.

No arrests have been made.

The ‘A-Team’ consists of five candidates running together for the five council seats, the entire governing body, being contested in the May 14 election.  The candidates are former Councilman James Keady,  former board of education member Redmond Palmer, Duanne Small, Nora Hyland and Daniel Harris.  There are a total of 22 candidates running for the five seats.

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