Hoboken Mayor On Runoffs: ‘Massive Vote Buying’ Happening In City

HOBOKEN, NJ — Want to know one of the biggest “open secrets” in Hoboken, according to the city’s recently appointed mayor? It’s easier to buy a vote in the Mile Square City than you might think.

On Thursday, Hoboken Mayor Ravinder Bhalla issued a statement that explains why he vetoed an ordinance that would have brought back “runoff elections” in the city, which would have mandated a second election if no candidate receives a majority of the votes.

It’s a situation that occurred in last November's nail-biting mayoral race, which included a crowded field of six candidates.

• See related article: Hoboken Election Results 2017 (Mayor, Council, BOE)

According to Bhalla, a former Hoboken City Council member:

“The open secret known by every single member of the City Council and alluded to in multiple local news reports is that there is massive vote-buying that occurs in our elections. Reducing voter turnout through runoffs in December will amplify the power of those vote-buying operations, making our elections less democratic. Therefore, the approach taken by the City Council in achieving this objective is highly misguided and amounts to poor public policy that I cannot support. A far better approach, which I fully support, is to move to instant runoff (also known as ranked choice) voting which is commonplace around the country.”

Bhalla added:

“Presumably, the objective of this legislation is to ensure that any successful candidate for office obtain at least 50% of the vote. While this is a worthwhile objective, it needs to be considered together with other important objectives such as maximizing voter participation and minimizing the likelihood of elections results being influenced by improper conduct. The evidence is clear that there is a dramatic reduction in voter turnout associated with December runoff elections, as we saw most recently during four Jersey City runoffs in 2017 which experienced voter turnout reductions ranging from 33.6 percent to 45.4 percent.”

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Proponents of runoff elections in Hoboken, including Councilman Mike DeFusco, have charged that a lack of runoff elections benefits “establishment” politicians.

According to DeFusco, Hoboken held runoffs in local elections until the city moved the contests from May to November before the 2013 race and runoffs were also eliminated at that time by public referendum.

"It's this desire to preserve the status quo that stops young people from getting involved, and that's why I believe reinstating runoff elections is essential to bringing new energy and new ideas to our political discourse," he opined in December.

• See related article: Runoff Elections May Return To Hoboken

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