At Monday night’s Town Council meeting, Mayor Kevin Ryan introduced a resolution raising concerns about efforts by Nicholas Amato, the president of the board of Claridge II, to once again try to move the polling place for Claridge residents to Claridge II. In March 2015, the Essex County Board of Elections voted to approve turning the Claridge complex into its own voting district. But when the vote came to light, the Board went into session again, and reversed its decision on April 10, 2015.
Amato, who served as Essex County Executive from 1987 to 1991, resubmitted his request this March and the Board of Elections is meeting today, Tuesday, April 19, to vote on it. Verona township officials only recently learned of the request, even though former Mayor Teena Schwartz and Councilman Jay Sniatkowski were apprised of the plan early in April. Schwartz and Sniatkowski are, respectively the Democrat and Republican party chairs in Verona. The County Board of Elections consults with party officials but not town officials in making its decisions on polling places even though a municipality may have to bear extra costs from operating those polling places.
This year’s plan is different than last year’s. In 2015, the request was to make Claridge I and Claridge II the only residents included in District 1; all other residents would have be merged into District 10. This year’s plan calls for all current District 1 residents to vote at Claridge II, even if they do not live there. Voting in privately owned buildings in New Jersey is rare: Since 1965, when the first Claridge tower was built, and 1976, when its sister building was added, Claridge residents have voted at Laning, a school with ground level access at the main entrance and a handicap ramp by the new gym where voting has been conducted since 2007.
That is, Mayor Ryan noted Monday night, a sharp contrast to Claridge II. He said that Town Manager Matthew Cavallo and Police Chief Mitchell Stern visited the tower after becoming aware of the proposed change and found that there is no handicap parking in its visitor lot and that there is a steep upgrade to the building entrance. He also noted that the main Claridge Drive, which is also steep, is a private road and the town has no control over snow removal on it. Cavallo noted that the town could be faced with extra costs for insurance and security at a Claridge II polling place and that Essex County might not reimburse Verona for that spending. “When somebody goes up there to vote and breaks a leg,” resident Richard Aloia asked during public participation, “who’s responsible?”
It’s not clear why Verona needs to change the District 1 poling place. “We have had no complaints from Claridge residents about voting at Laning,” Mayor Ryan said Monday, noting too that anyone can now vote by mail in New Jersey. “This is a solution in search of an undefined problem,” added Ryan, who said he would attend the Board of Elections meeting today, which will be held in the Hall of Records in Newark at 5 p.m. Even though Ryan’s resolution was approved by the Town Council with three votes for, Sniatkowski abstaining and Councilman Alex Roman away on a business trip, it is not clear that Verona’s opinion will carry any weight in the decision.
Turnout from District 1 has tended to be higher in state and national elections than in local elections. In the 2014 Senate election, turnout in district 1 was 32.56% of 1,029 registered voters, above the 28.02% average for Essex County. But in the 2011 Town Council race, only 128 votes were cast by all of District 1. In the 2013 Council election, only 83 ballots were cast in district 1, or 7.97% of the 1,041 voters registered.
