Politics & Government

Votes Earn Democrat Komondy a Place on Ballot in November

Unopposed incumbents Carpenter and Pavlini will represent Republicans on November ballot for Township Committee.

Barely 6 percent of the township's 18, 427 registered voters cast a vote in Tuesday's primary election, with virtually no contested elections among Republicans or Democrats seeking their party's nomination for November.

The two Republican Township Committee members seeking re-election, Mary Pavlini and John Carpenter, earned 722 votes and 739 votes, respectively.

Republican candidates for state Senate, Assembly and Somerset County Freeholder also received a higher number of primary votes in Bernards Township than did their Democratic counterparts.

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Democrat Bonnie Diehl, who ran last October as a write-in candidate for Township Committee but filed a petition this year, received 251 votes from local Democrats.

However, another Democrat, Michael Komondy, who said he began campaigning about a month ago as a write-in candidate, received 56 votes for the party endorsement for Township Committee candidate. That amount qualifies him to have his name placed on the ballot in November as a Democratic candidate for Township Committee, Township Clerk Denise Szabo said after Tuesday's unofficial results came in.

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The results will remain unofficial until vote counts are certified by the Somerset County Board of Elections. 

Szabo said absentee write-in votes for Komondy have not yet been added to the total. Absentee, or mail in votes, for all other candidates were added to the unofficial total, she said.

The county will add so-called provisional votes cast to the total, Szabo said.

Below are unofficial votes for party nominations. Except for state Senate, voters were asked to chose two candidates to represent the party in November.

NJ Senate (choose 1) Republican  Thomas H. Kean Jr.* 797 
Democrat Paul Swanicke 247 NJ Assembly (choose 2) Republican Jon Bramnick* 757
Republican Nancy Munoz* 732
Democrat  Bruce H. Bergen 246
Democrat Norman W. Albert 238 Somerset County Freeholder (choose 2) Republican Peter Palmer* 751
Republican Bob Zaborowski* 735 Democrat Wes Ifan 233 Democrat Christian Mastondea 240 Bernards Township Committee (choose 2) Republican Mary Pavlini* 722 Republican John Carpenter* 739 Democrat Bonnie Diehl 251 Democrat Michael Komondy** 56 **does not include mail-in absentee ballots * incumbents


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