Two Years Later, County Investigating Parsippany Primary Election

As Parsippany looks ahead and gears up for another contentious Primary Election this June, with six Republican candidates eyeing three seats, the Morris County Board of Elections is looking to the past.

The board has decided to further investigate a potential voting discrepancy in the number of mail-in and absentee ballots counted during the June 2013 Primary Election, according to dailyrecord.com.

That ballot included current councilman Paul Carifi Jr. contending current Mayor James Barberio for the town’s highest political seat; and Robert Peluso, Louis Valori, Michael Strumolo, then-incumbent Vincent Ferrara, and Milin Shah eyeing two seats and the November General Election.

Peluso and Valori won the Primary in a tight race that saw a large absentee ballot draw.

Just two weeks after the vote, Strumolo filed a petition for a recount, saying the mail-in ballots for Carifi, Valori, and Peluso were disproportionate.

According to the report, four election board commissioners signed a letter to the Attorney General’s Office in Whippany, stating,

“The Morris County Board of Elections, county clerk, county counsel, deputy attorney general’s office, third-party attorneys, candidates and voters have spent weeks in the courtroom testifying and arguing an array of apparently problematic mail-in ballot practices utilized by the local candidates.”

Of the 760 mail-in ballots cast during that election, 71.8-percent had votes for Peluso, and 69.3-percent had votes for Valori, while only 16.7-percent, 16.1-percent, and 9.4-percent were cast for Ferrara, Shah, and Strumolo, respectively, the report said.

The recount that was done by members of the same election board and Morris County Republican Committee came back later that month, affirming the votes for Peluso and Valori. At the time, Superintendent of Elections Dale Kramer said the disparity in the number of mail-in ballots was “not unusual.”

While the recount added votes to Ferrara and Shah, it wasn’t enough to change the outcome.

In the recently signed letter by the board of elections, the group asked for assistance from the attorney general’s office, the report said.

On June 2, Ferrara will be running again, this time as a member of a three-person team and joined by incumbent Michael dePierro and challenger Loretta Gragnani. Also on the June Primary ballot is the trio of incumbent Carifi and running mates John Beehler and Aida Visakay.

Pictured: Michael Strumolo. Patch File Photo.

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