It’s become almost a Hoboken tradition to challenge the absentee ballots after a heated election. Absentee ballots are filled out by the sick, immobile elderly, and those going away on Election Day – and local candidates often visit senior housing in advance to have the elderly fill out ballots.
On Thursday, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli granted an extension for the county supervisor of elections to complete an already underway investigation into 80 absentee ballots cast in the Nov. 4 special election for the vacant 3rd Ward City Council seat. The seat was won by Michael Russo, replacing his father, Anthony Russo, who resigned the seat in the summer due to health problems. Anthony Russo was indicted soon after for allegedly taking bribes while he was mayor in the 1990s.
Michael Russo won the election by 48 votes on the voting machines. Because a portion of the absentee ballots is being challenged, none of the 124 absentee ballots have been counted. Russo beat out Mayor David Roberts’ candidate, Interim Councilman Vincent Addeo, as well as former 10-year 3rd Ward Councilwoman Roseanne Andreula. Both Addeo and Andreula had lost to Anthony Russo in May’s general election, with Andreula, who was then supported by Roberts, losing by approximately 100 votes in a runoff.
According to Addeo’s attorney, Joseph Pojanowski of Nutley, 80 out of the 124 ballots are being challenged for reasons including mismatched signatures, invalid addresses, and incorrect dates on the paperwork that voters sent in with their ballots.
“When we looked at these ballots, we found a lot of irregularities,” said Pojanowski, describing some the irregularities as “really weird.”
In addition to mismatched signatures, several of the absentee voter applications that were mailed in had dates from the general election in May and the school board election in April.
Also, Pojanowski said, while 80 percent of the ballots had the same person listed as the messenger, that being George DeStefano, who is Anthony Russo’s brother-in-law, there were several that had no messenger listed at all.
How absentee balloting works
When a voter mails in their absentee ballot, their vote is attached to their voting application, affidavit and information about their identity. Usually, if the absentee ballots are unchallenged, the supervisor of elections, on the county level, will “strip” the ballots, meaning the identification information is separated from the actual vote. That way the votes can be counted anonymously.
But when the legitimacy of those ballots is called into question, a judge can bar election officials from stripping the ballots until an investigation takes place. Once the ballots are stripped, it becomes impossible to investigate for fraud because the link between the vote and identity of the voter is severed and cannot be reestablished.
On the day before the Nov. 4 election, Gallipoli agreed to order the ballots impounded until an investigation of the challenged votes was complete. The Gallipoli order was not based on any specific findings but rather was a precautionary measure that allows for an investigation into the ballot to take place.
On Nov. 7, Superintendent of Elections Marie Borace began investigating Addeo’s claims. On Thursday, Gallipoli granted an extension requested by Borace. The investigation is still ongoing and is expected to continue into early this week. Borace’s office wouldn’t comment on any of the preliminary findings of the investigation.
Russo reacts
Russo said Thursday that the “claims are completely bogus” and that he is confident that the outcome of the investigation will fall in his favor. But right now, his biggest worry is the time it is taking. Until the election is certified, Russo cannot be sworn in. The next meeting of the Hoboken City Council is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m.
“I have no problem with the investigation,” said Russo. “At the end of the day I’m going to be the winner, there’s no doubt about that. The only concern I have is that it doesn’t get resolved quickly. Monday will be the second City Council meeting in a row that the people of the 3rd Ward have no representation.”
Russo also added that the longer this investigation takes, the greater the possibility that those who voted by absentee ballots might become disenfranchised. He said that county investigators have visited several of his supporters’ several times and asked to fill out paperwork, including affidavits.
“Some of these people might not vote in the next election because of the whole rigmarole that they have had to go through,” said Russo.
Machine ‘recheck’
On Nov. 10, attorneys for Addeo and Russo were before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Arthur D’Italia. Addeo’s camp and asked for a recount of the ballots cast on the machines. Russo’s camp did not object, and a recount was conducted under the direction the supervisor of elections.
Technically, the action was not an official recount because a recount includes counting the machines and absentee ballots. The action taken is called a machine “recheck” and the numbers came back exactly as they did on the night of Nov. 4 with Russo leading by 48 votes.