HOBOKEN — After a 22-day wait, Hoboken election results were made final Wednesday, and reflected the same results as the machine vote on Nov. 6.
Due to Hurricane Sandy, votes were permitted by mail, email and fax for this election. Additionally, provisional ballot numbers were high and deadlines were extended to the Friday after the election. Mail-in ballots were still being accepted as of Nov. 19 by the bin-load. This led to weeks of uncertainty.
The three vacant Board of Education seats will in fact be filled by the mayor-allied ticket, Kids First, which consists of Tom Kluepfel, incumbant Ruth McAllister and Jean Marie Mitchell. These are the same projected winners from the Nov. 6 machine vote. But a close count between Jean Marie Mitchell and opposing ticket member Liz Markevitch could have overturned the results. Tom Kluepfel received a final count of 4,259, McAllister saw 4,216 and Mitchell 4,097. This put Mitchell only 78 votes ahead of Move Forward slate runner Liz Markevitch.
Three public questions were also decided, and remained in line with the machine vote results. Public question 2, which looked to remove rent control upon tenant vacancy, was unltimately voted down by a slim margin. The final vote count was 8,248 on the “no” vote and 8,196 on the “yes” vote.
As suspected, public questions 1 and 3, which seek to move municipal elections and eliminate runoff elections, were not overturned. Public question 1 to do away with run-off elections saw a 9,191 to 6,702 “yes” to “no” difference in votes, respectively. A staggering 10,419 voters said “yes” to moving municipal elections from May to November, while only 3,446 voters disapproved of the move.
The big winner is Mayor Dawn Zimmer, as all of her endorsed candidates and positions won. She will also remain in office until at least next November, when she is up for a vote.
All votes were certified as final by Hilda Rosario, supervisor of elections for Hudson County.