Government Change In Holmdel Defeated, Unofficial Vote Tally Shows

HOLMDEL, NJ — A proposal to change the form of government here was rejected by voters in a special election yesterday, according to unofficial vote totals, meaning the current Township Committee form will remain in place.

As of 9 p.m. Tuesday with all districts reporting, the Monmouth County Board of Elections reported a total of 1,963 votes were cast in favor of change while 2,452 votes were cast against change. The "no" votes prevailed in each district in in-person voting.

As of yesterday, mail-in votes were in favor of change, 592 to 395, and more returns may come in to the county, which has six days after the election to record mail-in returns. Until all mail-in votes have been counted the results are not official.

After weeks of receiving mailers and emails advocating for a "yes" vote or "no" vote, residents had a chance to weigh in Tuesday. Preliminary voter turnout shows 31.48 percent or 4,415 of 14,111 registered voters cast votes. The vote showed 44.46 percent of voters in favor of change, 55.54 percent opposed to change.

Resident Christian DiMare, who had become the spokesperson for the Save Holmdel organization that opposed the change in government, said last night that "It was a great night for Holmdel."

"People wanted to keep Holmdel Holmdel," he said. He said that he heard from residents, particularly on the Save Holmdel Facebook site, that political divisions in town can be solved within the current partisan voting system and did not require a major change.

Resident Kin Gee was chairman of the Charter Study Commission and said he is waiting for official results, but the vote margin against a change in government would most likely hold.

"We said all along that we (the commission) can only make recommendations. Ultimately it is up to the voters," he said last night. But he said voters may have been swayed by "misinformation and false claims" by opponents to change.

Gee has said in past comments that the commission wasn't out to "fix" anything in a township he described as "beautiful," but rather "modernize certain government features."

The special election was held to consider a change to the township's form of government, establishing nonpartisan elections with a directly elected mayor.

The town's Charter Study Commission was given the task by voters last year to study the existing form of government - A Township Committee with a weak mayor - and to make recommendations from that review.

In May, the commission recommended a new form of municipal government that put a Council-Manager form of government before voters.

The public question read: "Shall the Council-Manager plan of the Optional Municipal Charter Law, providing for five council members to be elected at large for staggered terms at nonpartisan elections held in November, with the mayor elected directly by the voters, be adopted by the Township of Holmdel?"

The Monmouth County Clerk of Elections on the voter website notes that "due to the new vote by mail law, the mail-in ballot count will continue after Election Day. The new law allows mail-in ballots to be received by the Board of Election up to six days after close of the polls, provided the ballot is post marked on Election Day."

Had the new form of government been adopted, it would have allowed for the direct election of the mayor. It would have included an initiative and referendum feature and would have held elections on a nonpartisan basis. The council would have appointed a municipal manager.

But opponents to the change argued the commission's proposals were a foregone conclusion and would shift the balance of power in the town to a directly elected mayor, who would be elected to a four-year term. And initiative and referendum, they said, while seemingly a way for the public to redress grievances, might create "chaos."

Gee said in past statements that Dr. Julia Sass Rubin, associate professor from Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Policy, stated that New Jersey is the only state in the United States that uses a ballot design that groups “endorsed” candidates together under what is generally called the line for partisan elections. Conversely, non-endorsed candidates are sometimes put in "political Siberia."

Rubin went on to say that New Jersey voters may exercise their Constitutional right by voting, but they are not the real deciders in New Jersey’s political system under partisan elections, Gee said.