UPDATED: Cwerner Seeking School Runoff Election with Priti Shah

Former school board member Bev Cwerner, whose two-vote loss to candidate Priti Shah was again certified in a on May 19 at the county Board of Elections Office, will seek to challenge the disqualification of two votes in court, her attorney announced on Friday evening.

If a state Superior Court hearing upholds Cwerner's contention that two absentee votes were "erroneously" rejected as valid by the Board of Elections, then the election would be tied, and a runoff election between the two candidates should be scheduled, attorney Kevin Orr said in an email sent to the Basking Ridge Patch.

INFO. ADDED: When asked on Tuesday, School Business Administrator Nick Markarian said he does not know the cost for a special election. He said the April 27 school election cost the district $6,500 _ including poll workers' salaries and use of the voting machines _ but he added he does not know if the cost of a more limited election would be less.

Markarian said he had never conducted a runoff election in this district, or another.

The certified vote count from the April school election now stands at 1,193 votes for Shah, and 1,191 for Cwerner, who was an incumbent candidate.

Cwerner said on Tuesday morning she not want to add to the words of her attorney.

Orr said the Board of Elections had "erroneously" concluded that the signatures Won two absentee ballots were not the same as the signatures on the voters' records, and had rejected those ballots. "Both voters have since attested that they, in fact, signed their own ballots," and joined as petitioners in a court action that on Friday had been filed by Cwerner, Orr said.

Earlier on Friday, Cwerner had filed a petition with state Superior Court in Somerville, seeking to set aside the vote certification for Shah, Orr said. He said Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone had set a court date of June 7 to determine whether the challenge for the vote petition will proceed to a trial on June 9.

If a tie is declared, the result would be a special runoff election between Cwerner and Shah, Orr said.

"School Board election laws provide that any runoff must occur within 60 days of the original election, by June 27, 2011," Orr said in an email.

In unofficial results released on April 27, Shah had trailed Cwerner, an incumbent candidate, by 17 votes for the third of three positions available on the Board of Education this year. Two other candidates, Linda Wooldridge and incumbent Susan McGowan, had decisively been elected to two seats, in an election where nine candidates had competed for three spots on the school board.

After counting provisional ballots submitted on election day, the Board of Elections had with a four-vote lead. That lead was later reduced to had not been counted, and Cwerner filed a court motion seeking a recount, performed by hand at the county Board of Elections in Somerville.

Shah already was sworn onto the along with Wooldridge and McGowan.

At that time, school Business Administrator Nick Markarian said the school board would comply with an revisions to the results as determined by the county Board of Elections and law.