No Change After Holmdel Vote Recount For Mike Nikolis

HOLMDEL, NJ — There was no change in status quo Thursday when Committeeman Mike Nikolis had his re-count to determine if votes in the Holmdel Republican primary were counted correctly.

The recount was done Thursday morning at the Monmouth County Board of Elections in Freehold and personally overseen by county clerk Christine Hanlon. And the results were the same: Eric Hinds received 874 votes, Chiung-Yin Lui received 666, Nikolis received 657, Kim LaMountain received 312 and Nicholas Teeteeli received 60.

That includes machine votes, absentee and provisional ballots. Only absentee and provisionals were recounted today, as machine ballots are done by computers. Their accuracy was not disputed by Nikolis.

"My lawyer and I watched the whole process," said Nikolis. "And those were the results. I owed it to my supporters to have this recount."

"I'm still investigating other options," he said cryptically, but would not elaborate. Nikolis has until July 23 to make his next — and final — move.

Other than that, his term as a Holmdel Committeeman will be up at the end of this year. Hinds and Lui are running as the Republican nominees for Holmdel Twp. Committee, and they will be faced by two newcomer Independent challengers, Holmdel residents Cathy Weber and Prakash Santhana. Weber is a former Board of Education member. The election will be Nov. 5.

Nikolis has been a Holmdel Committeeman for many years. However, in the spring of 2019, he said he was told by Monmouth County Republican Party boss (and county sheriff) Shaun Golden to "sit this one out," referring to the June primary.

With Golden's backing, Hinds ran for re-election, and as expected, he won easily. Golden chose Liu, a political newbie, as Hinds' running mate. Liu served on the Holmdel Board of Education before, but this was her first time running for Township Committee. Few had heard of her before the primary this past June.

"Look, I don't answer to political parties and I'm not going away," vowed Nikolis on Thursday. "I'm 45 years old. I still want to have a hand in how things are done in this town, and make sure they are done properly and transparently — with the voice of the Holmdel people."