Low Turnout Suggests That School Elections Should Have Been Grouped with May 10 Election Day Ballot
By Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Those registered Newark and Irvington voters who pressed voting machine buttons or checked boxes and sent off their Vote By Mail Ballots have, unofficially, kept their non-partisan school boards’ status quo on April 19.
A majority of participating Newark voters have swept in the politically supported Moving Newark Schools Forward team for the seventh straight year.
All four “Irvington Schools Strong” candidates were elected or re-elected literally unopposed.
Voters in both municipalities approved their respective 2022-23 school budgets to around four-to-one ratios.
Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin has unofficially reported that 4,939 ballots were cast from a combined Newark-Irvington registered voter pool of 210,234.
The resulting percentage comes out to a perhaps record-low 2.35 percent turnout.
That turnout is the lowest since Newark and Irvington became the last two public school districts to hold Third Tuesday in April in 2014. Eight other “Local Talk” districts added their board elections onto their November General Election ballots.
The 2.35 percent continues a voter turnout decline since April 2016’s high of 6.32 percent. It and April 20, 2021’s 3.79 percent turnout fell below the eight election average of 4.29 percent.
Statistics from May 12, 2020’s Special Election, which combined school board and non-partisan municipal elections due to the COVID pandemic, were not applied. That ballot included council elections in Newark, Irvington, Orange, Montclair, Belleville and Nutley.
The so-far 3,733 voters from Newark and Irvington did exercise their almost exclusive right to vote on $1.403 billion worth of next school year’s budgets – including $35.259 million worth of property taxes.
The eight other non-appointed “Local Talk” boards of education agreed with the State Legislature to no longer place their annual budgets on the ballot in exchange for shifting to the November elections.
Please note that the April 19 results are unofficial until at least May 2.
There were 99 of the 115 voting machines deployed in both towns, or 95 percent, that was used until 8 p.m. Tuesday. Workers from the Essex County Clerk-Elections Division and the Essex County Board of Elections may be looking into the conditions of the other 16 machines.
The clerk’s office is allowing VBMBs that were postmarked April 19 five days’ grace to arrive by mail and be counted. There are remaining provisional ballots and write-in votes to count.
The April 19 – May 2 period also allows for any challenges and recounts.
In NEWARK, the “Moving Newark Schools Forward” team was chosen from a balloted field of seven.
Newcomer Crystal Williams became the night’s top vote-getter. The first-time candidate received 2,600 votes or 23.1 percent of the vote.
Incumbent running mates A’Dorian Murray-Thomas and Daniel Gonzalez were returned to their Newark Board of Education seats for their second terms.
Murray-Thomas tallied 2,559 for 22.7 percent. Gonzalez garnered 2,475 or 22.03.
The trio ran on a ticket supported by Mayor Ras Baraka and a constellation of elected officials on the municipal, county, state and federal levels. While they enjoyed 22 and 23 percent of the vote, the other four independent candidates received single-digit totals.
Thomas Luna was “the best of the rest.” The eighth-grade charter school mathematics teacher tallied 1,087 or 9.61. Maggie Freeman’s first campaign since 2019 drew 1,027 or 9.14. Automotive technology teacher Phillip Wilson came in sixth at 807 or 7.18. Social worker Allison K. James-Frison rounded out the field at 679 or 6.04.
The Newark Public Schools’ $1.227 billion 2022-23 budget was carried on an 87.01/12.99 percentage split with 84.22 percent of city voting machine districts reporting.
There were 2,792 “Yes” votes to 417 “No” votes. The budget was carried with a property taxpayers’ levy of $176.155 million – which is an actual $8.75 decrease on the tax bill on a house with an average assessed value of $175,000.
In IRVINGTON, the only contest Tuesday night was over which “Irvington Schools Strong” candidates get bragging rights as top vote-getter.
First-time candidate Janelle Lowery, with 95 percent of Irvington voting machines reporting, topped the balloted field with 617 or 34.22. Lowery was appointed after the June 30 resignation of longtime Irvington Board of Education member Richard Williams.
Lowery’s running mates, incumbents Joseph Sylvain and Luis Antilus, were similarly returned to the board. Sylvain drew 608 or 33.72. Antillus amassed 578 or 32.06.
John F. Brown will get to complete Gene Etichon’s unexpired term. Brown, who was appointed July 7, received all 579 votes, or 100 percent, in the special election.
Irvington Public Schools’ $176,155,359 2022-23 budget – and its $14.8 million property tax levy – was carried on an 82.06/17.94 percentage split. There were 430 “Yes” votes to 94 “No” votes.
Clerk Durkin, barring recounts or challenges, is poised to certify the above results on May 2. Elected board members will then be sworn in before the May 30 Memorial Day holiday.
