Election workers bring voting machine tapes to the municipal building.
The three Board of Education incumbents were victorious, and the public question concerning energy aggregation was passed in the November 8 election, according to the final results certified by the Somerset County Clerk.
In the school board election, Walter Jackson led all candidates with 10,693 votes, Nancy LaCorte came in a close second with 10,600 votes, and Ardaman Singh received 10,274 votes.
Among the challengers, Marco Bruno received 4,895 votes, Loren Long received 4,781 votes and Pat Stanley received 3,421 votes.
The public question concerning energy aggregation passed with 9,026 “yes” votes and 5,005 “no” votes.
Original Story: The three Board of Education incumbents seeking to retain their seats look to be on their way to do that, according to unofficial results in the November 8 election.
Additionally, a public question that would authorize the Township to enter into an energy aggregation contract also looks to be on its way to being approved.
According to unofficial results posted by the Somerset County Clerk’s Office, with 100 percent of precincts reporting, BOE incumbent Walter Jackson leads all candidates with 10,089 votes, current BOE president Nancy LaCorte follows with 9,992 votes and current Board vice-president Ardaman Singh has 9,673 votes.
Challenger Marco Bruno has 4,690 votes, Loren Long has 4,564 votes and former BOE member Pat Stanley has 3,229 votes.
The public question on energy aggregation also looks to be approved, with unofficial results showing 8,386 “yes” votes and 4,790 “no” votes.
Should that result hold, Township Manager Robert Vornlocker will begin the process of securing an electricity provider that can guarantee township residents at least a 5 percent cost savings over PSE&G. Residents would have the option to opt out of the program.
If no provider can be found to meet the Township’s specifications, energy aggregation will not be pursued.
The vote counts are unofficial because they do not yet include mail-in ballots received after Election Day, provisional or emergency ballots.
The Somerset County Clerk has until November 26 to certify the election results.
The Franklin Reporter & Advocate spoke with two of the BOE candidates in the Township Council chamber, while votes were being tallied:
Here are some scenes from the municipal building:
In other races, Somerset County Sheriff and Franklin resident Darren Russo appears to be on his way to re-election.
Unofficial results have Russo leading John Sheridan, his Republican challenger, by a vote count of 57,431 to 49,355, with just under 100 percent of precincts reporting.
U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12) has won her re-election bid, according to the AP.
With 93 percent of the votes in, Watson Coleman garnered 95,831 votes to 61,125 votes for her Republican challenger, Darius Mayfield.