By: Steve Rauscher
MONTGOMERY Republican Township Committee member Mark Caliguire decided Friday not to file for a recount of the Nov. 6 election, saying he believed it was in no one’s best interest.
"It appears that we lost a close one, and I just want to bow out gracefully," he said Monday.
On Election Day, Mr. Caliguire appeared to have lost the race to serve the final year of an unexpired committee term by 25 votes to Democrat Karen Wintress. But the existence of 13 provisional ballots and up to 69 absentee ballots that may have been delayed in the mail by anthrax-related post office closures prompted Mr. Caliguire and local Republicans to contemplate a recount.
After the Somerset County Board of Elections met Thursday and counted 11 of the 13 provisional ballots, Mr. Caliguire was still down by 24 votes. The board did not rule on the outstanding absentee ballots, but appeared reluctant to count any ballots received after the Election Day deadline.
"What became increasingly clear was that to try to get the absentee ballots counted would have taken some kind of legal challenge," Mr. Caliguire said. "There’s a chance we could have pulled it off … but I don’t think that it was in anybody’s best interest.
"I will always wonder what the delayed absentee ballots would have showed when they all came in, but it’s time for me to do what I feel is the right thing."
Mr. Caliguire has not decided whether he will run again in next year’s election.
Ms. Wintress will be sworn in at the Township Committee’s next meeting Dec. 5.
