ROBBINSVILLE: Town eyes moving municipal election to November

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   ROBBINSVILLLE — Calling the 13.2 percent voter turnout in the township’s nonpartisan May election “abysmal,” the Township Council says it wants to ask voters if municipal elections should be held in November instead.
   Only 1,107 residents voted in the May 10 election when three of the five Township Council seats were on the ballot. One seat was decided by just 26 votes.
   ”We need to do better than that, and I think we can do better than that,” Township Councilman Vince Calcagno said at the May 26 council meeting.
   Voter turnout May 10 dropped significantly from the last municipal election in 2009 when 24 percent of voters went to the polls to cast ballots for mayor and council. In 2007, when only council seats were on the ballot, the turnout was 18 percent, about 5 percent higher than this year.
   Mr. Calcagno wants voters to weigh in on the election date proposal through a nonbinding referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot. If voters say yes, the council could adopt an ordinance in time for the next municipal election in 2013.
   Council President Sheree McGowan said a resolution to authorize the nonbinding voter referendum would be listed for introduction June 9.
   Ms. McGowan, who also supports changing the election date, said municipal races would remain nonpartisan if they were held the same day as the general election. Municipal candidates would run without Democrat or Republican labels, and their names would appear on a separate part of the ballot — not under the Democrat and GOP party lines listing county, state and federal office-seekers.
   The advantage of the change would be a projected savings of $28,000 in election-related costs and increased voter turnout because people are more accustomed to voting in the fall, Ms. McGowan said.
   ”It was shocking to me how many people did not even know we had an election” in May, Ms. McGowan said. “Thirteen percent (turnout) is just abysmal.”
   Ms. McGowan said residents have told her they saw the campaign lawn signs all over town, but didn’t realize the election was May 10.
   ”These are people who usually vote in elections; they thought the signs were out for the June primary,” Ms. McGowan said.
   Municipal candidates have not run in primaries since Robbinsville changed its government to a nonpartisan mayor-council form in 2005. Only Democrats and Republicans running for state and county offices are on the June 7 primary ballot, and the winners face each other in the general election.
   This is not the first time the issue has come before Township Council. Last November, Ms. McGowan listed a proposed ordinance on the agenda that would have moved the 2011 May municipal election to November without the added step of a nonbinding voter referendum to gauge public sentiment. The three council members running for re-election strongly objected, and it wasn’t introduced.
   Council members Rich Levesque and David Boyne said at the time that holding nonpartisan municipal races in November would open them to interference from state and county political bosses while Councilwoman Chris Ciaccio said she thought voters should decide the issue by referendum.
   Mr. Boyne lost his seat in the May 10 election by 26 votes after a divisive campaign in which Mayor Dave Fried, who is the county GOP chairman, Ms. McGowan and Mr. Calcagno endorsed Mr. Boyne’s opponent, Ron Witt.
   When Mr. Calcagno suggested last week that the council revisit the issue with a nonbinding referendum, there were no objections.
   ”If the voters want to move it, that’s fine,” Mr. Levesque said.
   Mr. Calcagno said allowing voters to have a say would give the council clear direction on the issue. Any municipal question going on the Nov. 8 ballot must be approved by the council and submitted to the county clerk by Aug. 19.
   Township Attorney Mark Roselli said that when voters changed the township’s form of government, state law at the time required all nonpartisan elections to be held in May. However, a new state law allows municipalities with nonpartisan governments to hold elections in November to save money.
   A few communities, including neighboring West Windsor, already have taken advantage of the law, Mr. Roselli said. West Windsor did not hold a nonbinding referendum before enacting its ordinance, he said.
   Municipal Clerk Michele Seigfried said she has not received all the bills yet from the May 10 election, but estimated it cost taxpayers between $30,000 and $35,000. She said Robbinsville would save about $28,000 in election-related expenses if the municipal election coincided with the general election.
   ”We would not save the full cost of the election because we are still responsible for certain areas of the election such as possibly sharing in the cost for the printer, placing certain legal advertisements and paying our portion of the cost of the voting machines,” Ms. Seigfried said.
   In a general election, a municipality has to pay only a percentage of the cost because municipal candidates aren’t the only ones on the ballot, Ms. Seigfried said.
   The nonpartisan May election is “the only election we are required to pay in full for everything, for the (poll) workers … the delivery of the machines, everything,” Ms. Seigfried said.
   Patriot Drive resident Sonja Walter said moving May elections to November was a good idea, but it should have been done directly by ordinance last year.
   ”It’s a shame because we could have saved that $28,000 and had a much better turnout,” Ms. Walter told the council.
   ”I don’t see why we have to have a referendum,” Ms. Walter added. “Comments came up that the five of you should not be making a decision like this for the town, but the five of you make decisions for this town every day.”