The next time you consider staying home on Election Day because it seems that one vote doesn’t really matter, give new SouthAmboy Mayor Fred Henry a call so he can set you straight.
This story won’t come as a surprise to residents of that community or readers of Greater Media’s newspaper, the Suburban, which covers the town, but state Superior Court Judge Phillip Paley recently ruled that Henry, a Democrat, was the winner in the mayor’s race against independent candidate Mary O’Connor.
The saga is a bit convoluted, but when the votes were tallied after the Nov. 2 election, Henry pulled in 1,128 votes and O’Connor tallied 1,127. The battle lines were drawn immediately with charges of voter fraud and the like, and the whole thing wound up in court.
In the end, according to the Suburban, O’Connor’s people got the judge to throw out one nonresident’s vote for Henry, which would have made it a tie. But just before Thanksgiving, six previously uncounted provisional ballots were discovered. Three of those votes were for Henry, and none were for O’Connor. She continued to challenge, and eventually one of those votes was thrown out.
That meant that in the end, Henry was actually two votes up, which doubled his lead. O’Connor said last week that she will appeal the ruling, and her attorney says he will pursue several angles, including the matter of 103 provisional ballots that O’Connor says are missing.
But my prediction is that Paley’s decision will stand, and that Henry will serve his term on a mandate of a single vote.
You have to wonder who cast the deciding vote in the Nov. 2 election. It’s impossible to know, of course, but I like to think it was a kid waiting tables at the local pizza shop, to whom Henry’s lesser angels suggested giving a 10 percent tip on a $12 tab, but whose better angels argued for 20 percent. It’s fun to imagine that Henry won the mayor’s job because he dug a little deeper into his pocket and tipped the kid an extra buck and a quarter.
If nothing else, Henry ought to listen to his better angels regularly as he sits behind the mayor’s desk. If he does one good deed a day, and only half of those turn into votes, he might win by a landslide the next time he runs.
It’s interesting to note that the South Amboy election wasn’t unique, by any means. In 2008, the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate released a report listing 15 elections in the state between 2005 and 2007 where a single vote determined the winner of the election or passage of the public question. Asimilar report in 2009 listed eight elections that were decided by a single vote during the previous year. That means that between 2005 and 2008, 23 elections in New Jersey were decided by one vote.
That’s a factoid you students out there ought to remember, in case it isn’t mentioned in civics class.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a little ambivalent about the law that went into effect last October requiring drivers to clean all the snow off the tops of their vehicles before venturing out onto the roadways, or face a fine.
Under that law, drivers who fail to clean the snow off before driving face fines of between $25 and $75, while drivers of commercial vehicles face fines of between $500 and $1,500. The fines increase dramatically if damage or injury is involved.
We all know that snow and ice flying off cars and trucks can be dangerous, and it has led to fatalities. But like many laws in this state, I fear this law is too vague and will be unfairly enforced. For example, how much snow and ice is too much? The law doesn’t specify, which leaves the judgment up to the discretion of law enforcement officers, who can be arbitrary.
Then there’s the matter of unfair enforcement. Obviously, local police departments will use this new law as one more weapon in their
municipal revenue enhancement arsenal. If you get stopped on the way to buy milk with your high school graduation tassels hanging from your rearview mirror (illegal), and one of those fancy license plate holders that lots of dealerships put on that can obscure some of the plate (illegal), talking on your cell phone or texting (both illegal), carrying your Swiss Army knife (apparently illegal) and with an inch of snow on the top of the camper shell you couldn’t reach without a ladder (now illegal), you might have to sell a kidney (also illegal) to pay off the fines.
But what about the worst offenders?
After last week’s storm, local television news stations featured a crackdown in Parsippany, where several officers were filmed giving lectures about the danger of snow and ice on vehicles to the drivers of small passenger cars with an inch or so of snow on the roof. Some of those folks were interviewed after receiving $75 tickets.
Meanwhile, on Route 1 the same day, I was behind a couple of big rigs that had so much snow blowing off their roofs that they were creating a virtual white-out for the cars behind them. If they were worried about getting a $1,500 ticket, it wasn’t apparent to the drivers trying to stay alive in their wakes. Needless to say, when I got on the New Jersey Turnpike a little later, it was even worse.
How is this new law going to prevent those dangerous situations? Are we going to set up roadblocks at the borders of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania during the next big storm, and make every driver of an 18-wheeler who crosses into our state on the turnpike get out and shovel the snow off his roof, or face a $1,500 ticket?
Only if we want to halt interstate commerce, and who thinks that’s gonna happen?
As I said, I’m ambivalent on this issue. And I’ll likely stay that way ’til spring — or until I see with my own eyes the driver of a big rig getting a ticket for violating this new law.
Gregory Bean is the former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at [email protected].