Santhana Asks For Recount In Holmdel Township Committee Race

HOLMDEL, NJ — Who will sit on the Holmdel Township Committee come January 1st? It still remains unknown, as candidate Prakash Santhana announced Tuesday he has officially asked for a recount, after he lost to rival Chiung-Yin Cheng Liu by a mere three votes now that all final votes have been tallied.

Santhana filed his petition for a recount before Monmouth County Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon. Here's how a recount works: A Superior Court judge holds a hearing and he or she then decides if a recount is warranted. The hearing could be held as early as Wednesday, and then a recount of all 8,405 votes cast will be done by hand. Liu and Santhana can be present at the recount.

"I am thrilled that Cathy Weber was elected to the Homdel Township Committee with the most votes," Santhana said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"However, after more than 2,000 votes were cast for each candidate, only three votes separate second and third place for the second seat. We believe that Holmdel residents deserve to know that the election results are clean and without errors or anything else that could have affected the outcome," he continued.

As of Nov. 20, here are the current vote counts in Holmdel:

Cathy Weber (Independent): 2,1644

Chiung-Yin Cheng Liu (Republican): 2,082 votes

Prakash Santhana (Independent): 2,079

Eric Hinds (Republican): 2,063 votes

Write-In: 17

Total votes cast: 8,405

Two weeks ago, on the Tuesday, Nov. 5 election night, Santhana was in the lead. He and his running mate, Weber, had run a grassroots, independent campaign against 10-year incumbent Eric Hinds and his running mate Liu.

Together, Weber and Santhana had done the practically unthinkable: Taken on the powerful, deep-pocketed Monmouth County Republican Party — and won.

Weber received far and away the most votes on election night, getting 2,072 votes. Santhana was in second place with 1,991 votes, followed by Liu (1,965 votes) and Hinds (1,953 votes).

But now, two weeks after the election, mail-in ballots and provisional votes have been counted. Weber is still in the lead, but Liu now received three more votes than Santhana.

Stay tuned for results of the recount!