UPDATE: Date Moved Up to Consider School Vote Recount

A Superior Court judge in Somerset County has set a May 18 court date to discuss whether a vote recount should be conducted for the April 27 school election results tallied for Priti Shah and Beverly Cwerner, according to the county clerk and administrator for the Board of Elections.

Cwerner, who apparently lost a third available seat on the Board of Education by just two votes,  on Thursday night said she wants to guarantee that the count was accurate, especially since the total shifted three times.

The latest tally, reported on the school website, put Shah as the winner with 1,193 votes, compared with 1,191 votes for Cwerner, an incumbent candidate. The candidates have been neck-and-neck since the election for third place in a nine-candidate race for three seats on the Board of Education.

The return date on Cwerner's order to show cause seeking a recount of the votes passed and recorded in the  April 27 annual school board election, originally set for May 25, was on Thursday moved on to an earlier date, at 1:30 p.m. this Wednesday, Cwerner said. She said the change had been made to accommodate a request by the Somerset County Board of Elections to make the voting machines available on an earlier date to avoid any impact on their preparations for the upcoming June 7 primary election.

Judge Yolanda Ciccone, assignment judge for Superior Court in Somerset County, had asked any interested parties, which Cwerner said could include any of the nine candidates, to meet in court to discuss whether there is a basis for an official recount, Jerry Midgette, administrator for the county's election board, said on Thursday.

A recount has not been scheduled at this time, Midgette said.

Technically, Cwerner said she filed paperwork with the state Superior Court in Somerville on Wednesday seeking a recount. "The outpouring from my supporters, the people who helped me during my campaign, has been almost unanimous in that they want me to seek a recount," she said.

Cwerner said she thinks it makes sense in any contest where there are 2,300 votes cast, and results differ by two votes, to count again. But the multiple changes in results gives her even more reason for seeking to make sure the count was correct, she said.

Cwerner led by 17 votes  in an unofficial count on election night, but the county's count of provisional votes on May 2 put Shah ahead by four votes. The county clerk's office last  as the third winner for the three, three-year seats, along with Linda Wooldridge and incumbent Susan McGowan.

Shah already was sworn onto the , along with Wooldridge and McGowan, during the board's annual reorganization meeting following the election. At that time, board secretary Nick Markarian said the board would abide by any changes in membership if ordered by the court.

McGowan and Wooldridge were decisively elected to two of the three available board seats with 1,712 and 1,419 votes respectively. The proposed tax levy to support the 2011-12 school budget also was approved on election night, 2,451 to 1,840.

Cwerner said she only found out from the school district last Tuesday, May 3, that the differential had been narrowed to two votes because reportedly two absentee ballots had not been counted. 

"This has nothing to do with the other candidate who was sworn in," Cwerner said of Shah. "I think she would be a fine board member."

Shah was not available for comment earlier on Thursday.