By Philip Sean Curran
Staff Writer
Princeton School Board member Betsy Baglio and newcomers Brian McDonald and Daniel Dart expanded their leads in the school board race when mail-in votes were tacked on to their Election Day totals.
They so far have declined to declare victory in the contest for three seats since provisional ballots still have to be counted and the possibility of more votes by mail coming in by the end of Thursday.
Based on a state law, vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted if they are received by the county Board of Elections no later than 48 hours after the close of polls on Nov. 6.
McDonald, the top vote-getter, picked up 1,078 votes by mail that brought his total to 4,973. He said on Nov. 8 that he was not going to declare victory.
“The numbers are extremely encouraging,” he said. “And out of respect for my belief that every vote really does matter and my sense of wanting to be respectful of my fellow candidates, until the results are final, I’m just not comfortable saying much more than I’m grateful for the support I received and think there’s a lot of good work to do on behalf of the schools and the school children in the community going forward.”
Dart stood in second with 4,543 votes, after adding 932 votes by mail. Baglio gained 4,328 votes after the addition of 1,025.
Dafna Kendal, the other incumbent in the race, stood in fourth place at 4,227 votes and challenger Mary Clurman came in at fifth with 4,068. All vote totals are unofficial until certified next week.
If their leads hold, McDonald and Dart will join the Board in January and Baglio will win a second term.
“Well, I think that the electorate has clearly indicated that they want change,” Dart said. “My message, which I think resonated with people, was academic excellence and fiscal responsibility.”
He said that he and McDonald had positioned themselves “as people with strong financial backgrounds.” Both men had worked in the financial industry during their careers.
“So I think it was a vote for change and a vote for a board that has some number of financial skills on it,” Dart said.
Baglio revealed on Nov. 7 that she had no comment, noting that results are “not final and third place might change when absentee and provisional ballots are counted.”
As for those provisional ballots, Joanne Palmucci, chairwoman of the Mercer County Board of Elections, said on Nov. 7 that there are about 4,000 of them for the entire county.
It was not immediately known how many of those are for Princeton.
Election officials will need to determine if the voters who voted by provisional ballot are registered, and then count the ballots, perhaps as soon as on Nov.11.
Kendal was not ready to publicly concede.
“Everyone deserves to have their vote counted,” she said on Nov.7.
This was the first but not the last school election for Princeton voters this year. On Dec. 11, they will decide a $26.9-million-facilities referendum to pay for various improvements at district schools.
Dart said he was “not sure” if the outcome of the Princeton Board of Education race has implications for the referendum vote next month. Dart had criticized an earlier referendum proposal the district was considering of well in excess of nearly $130 million, but he said he supports this smaller one.
“I do think that the whole approach to the referendum did hurt the credibility of the Board and that could show up in December,” he said. “So the way they tried to rush the $130 million proposal through, I think did some damage to the Board’s credibility. And it will be up to the new Board to try to restore that.”