Record 9/17: Weinberg Wants Disputed Ballots Counted in Tally

As reported in Saturday's Record, Teaneck Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg is planning to file a legal challenge to require the counting of the ballots uncounted in Thursday's Democratic Committee balloting. See Saturday's Record or click on http://tinyurl.com/a8n94 for the article at the Record's http://www.Bergen.com web site (registration required).

Weinberg wants disputed ballots counted in tally Saturday, September 17, 2005 By SCOTT FALLON STAFF WRITER

Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg will ask a judge next week to count five unopened ballots that were disqualified in her razor-thin defeat Thursday night for the Democratic nomination to a state Senate seat.

Weinberg, of Teaneck, said she believes all of those ballots were cast in her favor.

If they are deemed eligible and were cast in her favor, they would reverse Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa's 114-100 victory to fill retired Sen. Byron Baer's term until November. The change would also upend Zisa's 112-111 win to be put on the November ballot as the party's nominee for the seat.

The five ballots were cast by Bergen County Democratic Committee members from Tenafly. They were appointed to their posts in June, but their names were not forwarded to the Bergen County Democratic Organization until Wednesday, the day before the special election.

Under the organization's bylaws, the names of new members have to be sent to the organization 30 days before a special election. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, who was called in by both sides to oversee the election, disqualified the ballots.

"I agonized over the decision," he said Friday. "I wanted every voter to be heard.

"It would be a terrible precedent to allow a municipal committee to withhold the names of its new committee members intentionally or otherwise," he said. "It could invite a number of errors and the possibility of fraud."

Weinberg's lawyers argued that Rothman should not disenfranchise voters because of an apparent error by the Tenafly Democratic chairman. They were preparing a lawsuit on Friday afternoon seeking to have the five ballots counted.

Rothman also disqualified two ballots from Bergenfield committee members because he believed they had illegally replaced two other members.

Rothman ruled that signatures on resignation letters of five Bergenfield members were forged.

"I found them to be invalid," he said. "The signatures were not of those who supposedly signed them."

Three of the five have signed affidavits affirming that the signatures weren't theirs. Rothman allowed them to vote. Weinberg has called for the state attorney general to investigate.

Bergenfield municipal Chairman Kevin Clancy has said he received the resignation letters in January, long before Baer announced his retirement last week.

Zisa did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday.

The election was watched statewide after U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, now the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, endorsed Weinberg. County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, who supported Zisa, said Corzine was meddling in a local election.

Corzine said Friday that he wants to see all the votes counted.

"Democrats, I believe, believe in fair and open elections, where every vote is counted, whether in Florida, Ohio or Bergen County," he said.

Republicans, who will meet Sunday to nominate their own candidate, seized on the situation.

"Boss Ferriero still controls the so-called 'democratic' process in Bergen County, and Ken Zisa is the apparent benefactor of this backroom democracy," county GOP Chairman Guy Talarico said.

Staff Writer Mitchel Maddux contributed to this article. E-mail: fallon@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2005 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

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