Politics & Government

Recount Reaffirms Peluso, Valori as GOP Primary Winners

Morris County Board of Elections conducted a recount after Candidate Michael Strumolo filed a petition citing a 'disproportionate amount of mail-in ballots.'

Candidates Robert Peluso and Lou Valori remain the winners of the June Republican primary after a recount by the Morris County Board of Elections.

On Monday, the Morris County Board of Elections, led by Commissioner and chairman of the Morris County Republican Committee John Sette, went over each individual vote from the June 4 Parsippany primary election.

The recount was held at the voting machine warehouse in Cedar Knolls and was attended by candidate Michael Strumolo, Councilman Vincent Ferrara, Councilman Jonathan Nelson, Parsippany Clerk Yancy Wazirmas and attorney Justin Marchetta, representing township attorney John Inglesino.

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Strumolo had filed a petition for a recount with the Morris County Superior Court, citing a disproportionate amount of mail-in ballots from Republicans running on the same ticket.

However, Superintendent of Elections Dale Kramer said the disparity in the number of mail-in ballots is "not unusual."

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The Board of Elections members opened up all the machines and ran the results, just like they did on election night, and compared the numbers from June 4. This time, however, they did a manual tally of all the mail-in and provisional ballots, which were initially done on the machine.

"Ferrara picked up a few more votes and so did Shah but the results remained the same," said Kramer.

The initial poll numbers on election night 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 results from Monday's recount reaffirmed the win of Peluso and Valori.

Officials at the County Clerks Office said that supervisor of elections Laura Roberts submitted the documentation for certification before a judge.

Strumolo is not yet done contesting the results and will be analyzing the mail-in ballots to look for evidence that multiple ballots were filled out by one person.


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