The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Results are still preliminary, but newcomer Nick DiMeglio and incumbents Dennis Hopkins, Jr. and Laurie Merris are leading in the race for Board of Education seats.
The results are unofficial because mail-in, early, and provisional votes have not yet been fully counted.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, unofficial tallies by the Somerset County Clerk’s office on November 20 show DiMeglio with 14,842 votes, Hopkins with 13,509 votes, and Merris with 12,847 votes.
The fourth candidate vying for the three seats, incumbent Sami Shaban, garnered 11,500 votes in the County’s unofficial tally.
In the Somerset County Commissioner race, Democratic incumbents Shanel Robinson and Sara Sooy appear to be cruising to re-election over Republican challengers Nick Cuozzo and Rakesh “Rocky” Ganta.
Unofficial results, also updated on November 20, have Robinson, a former Franklin Township Councilwoman, leading all candidates with 89,064 votes, followed by Sooy with 88,062. Cuozzo received 77,770 votes and Ganta received 75,777.
According to the County Clerk’s election website, “These initial tallies do not represent the final election outcome. Results are added as they become available, and therefore the totals on this page will change until final certification to the Secretary of State on November 25.”
“Mail-in ballots that are damaged or filled out in ways that cannot be scanned by the Board of Elections have to be hand-tabulated, and ballots postmarked by 8 p.m. on November 5 and received by November 12 will also be processed,” according to the statement. “Only then can provisional ballots be counted.”
This story will be updated as more results are posted by the Somerset County Clerk.
