COURT HOUSE — Middle Township Mayor F. Nathan Doughty was the apparent victor of the extremely close race for township committee against Republican Daniel Lockwood when provisional ballots were added to his total.
The county Board of Elections reviewed 94 provisional ballots Friday, Nov. 7 at the county Board of Elections office.
The review began later than the 10 a.m. intended start to ensure all interested parties were represented.
Present on Doughty’s behalf were: Township Solicitor and county Democratic leader James Pickering, Adminstrator-Clerk James Alexis, Deputy Clerk Kim Tompkins, Doughty’s personal attorney Robert Fineberg and campaign manager Todd Alexis.
No one from Lockwood’s camp was present.
After the count, Doughty added 48 votes, for a total of 4,105. Lockwood added 21, for a total 4,019.
Although there were 94 ballots received, 18 were rejected by the Board of Elections for various reasons, perhaps not living in the county or registering too late. One was deemed spoiled.
Fineberg reserved the right to challenge some of the rejected ballots pending the outcome of the count, but withdrew his challenge when Doughty came out on top.
There were 75 ballots counted, but some of those voted only for the president or another race, not for township committee.
Provisional ballots are used for several reasons, including if the voter was not in the register, perhaps had names switched, went to the wrong polling place, or recently relocated within the county to the voting district.
The Herald reached Doughty by phone after the count was taken.
“The people have spoken,” he said. “Now we can move on.”
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com
Cape May County – I’d like to suggest to the Herald that they leverage spout offs draw and replace some of the ads for their paper with a few paid ads that you probably can charge a little extra for. Lots of people…
