PRIMARY: Low turnout in voting

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   Voter turnout was light in Tuesday’s primary elections as most municipal races in Allentown, Upper Freehold, Millstone and Plumsted were either uncontested or had no official candidates on the ballot.
   GOP candidates running unopposed for local offices cruised to easy primary wins. The outcome was unclear in some Democratic primaries being decided by write-in votes. Municipal clerks could not immediately determine Tuesday night at press time whether people who apparently earned enough write-in votes to run as Democrats for township offices were eligible to run or intended to do so.
   The Republican and Democratic nominees run against each other in the general election Nov. 8.
   All primary results that follow are unofficial until certified by county clerks.
Allentown
    Voter turnout was just 4 percent in the borough with only 55 residents going to the polls.
   Republican Mayor Stuart A. Fierstein, of Probasco Drive, was unopposed for the GOP nomination and received 27 votes. In the Democratic primary for mayor there were two write-in votes for Monica Tonga.
   Two seats on the Borough Council also are up for grabs this fall. Republican incumbents Michael Schumacher and Dan Zorovich each collected 28 votes in their uncontested GOP primary races and won their party’s nomination.
   Several people collected a total 18 write-in votes in the Democratic primary for council. According to Municipal Clerk Julie Martin, the top vote-getters were Raymond Gooley with six votes and Angela Anthony with five. Write-in votes also were cast for Wayne R. Smith, Wayne Smith, Donald Wood Jr. and Robert Johnson.
Upper Freehold
    Incumbent Township Committee member Robert Frascella, of Dutchess Drive, won his uncontested GOP primary with 103 votes and will have no Democratic opponent in the fall.
   No write-in candidate received enough votes to win the Democratic nomination, according to Municipal Clerk Dana Tyler.
Millstone
    In the GOP primary, incumbents Mike Kuczinski and Fiore Masci ran unopposed for the Republican nominations for Township Committee and collected 72 and 70 votes, respectively. No Democrats filed to run and no write-in candidate had enough votes to win the nomination, said Municipal Clerk Maria Dellasala.
Plumsted
    Michael Wysong, of Holly Hill Drive, had 170 votes in his uncontested race for the GOP nomination to run for one open Township Committee seat.
   No Democrat filed to run in the Democratic primary, but several people collected write-in votes.
   The unofficial results put Jacob A. Wig III on top with four votes, which is the minimum needed to win as a write-in candidate in Plumsted, according to Municipal Clerk Dorothy Hendrickson. However, since Mr. Wig’s name was written several different ways on the write-in ballots it will be up to the Ocean County Election Board to sort out if he has won the primary.
Robbinsville
    There was no primary for municipal offices in Robbinsville because voters switched to a nonpartisan form of government in 2005.
   Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried and his running mate, former Cranbury Mayor Wayne Wittman, easily won the GOP nomination to run for the two Assembly seats in the newly redrawn 14th Legislative District.
   With 98 percent of the vote counted Tuesday, Mr. Wittman received 2,099 votes, and Mr. Fried received 1,951 votes to secure their party’s nomination. The third candidate in the GOP primary, Bruce MacDonald, of Hamilton, ran without the backing of the regular party organization and collected 526 votes.
   Mr. Fried and Mr. Wittman face incumbent Assembly Democrats Wayne DeAngelo and Dan Benson in the Nov. 8 election.