Primary Council Candidate Requests Recount

Republican Parsippany Council candidate Michael Strumolo, who lost in the June 4 GOP primary election, has filed a petition for a vote recount, according to a recent report.

Strumolo filed the petition with Morris County Superior Court, saying he's suspicious of the large amount of absentee ballots a trio of Republicans running on the same ticket got, nj.com reported.

"There's a horrible disproportion there," Strumolo told nj.com.

The initial poll numbers from the Morris County Clerk's Office favored Strumolo, who is also a current Board of Education member. After polls closed, Strumolo was in the lead with 1,639.

Candidates Robert Peluso and Louis Valori each received 1,545 and 1,261 at the polls before absentee ballots were counted.

After the mail-in ballots were counted, Peluso received 542 mail-in ballots, putting him in first with 2,087 votes. Valori came in second with 538 mail-in ballots, bringing his total to 1,799.

Strumolo garnered 73 mail-in ballots totaling 1,712 votes.

"The number of absentee ballots going to specific candidates — a percentage that wasn't seen with regards to the machine vote — could lead one to believe that was an error made in counting or that possibly invalid ballots were included somehow in the election," said Strumolo's attorney, Brian Aloia.

However, John Sette, Morris County Board of Elections chairman, said the absentee ballots were “all valid.”

Should the results hold, Peluso and Valori will be the Republicans' candidates for two open seats on the Town Council in the fall. They will face Democratic council candidates Robert Keller and Mihir Oza.