Late Write-In Campaign Lands 8% of Mayor, Council Votes

While Hopatcong's Nov. 8 elections saw many of the usual write-in suspects—Mickey Mouse, Daffy Duck and Popeye, to name a few—a trio of last-minute write-in candidates garnered a modest amount of the total mayor and council votes, according to a Patch analysis of documents obtained through the Sussex County Clerk's Office.

Council candidates Randall Paulenich (135 total municipal) and Mara Modes (141 total municipal) and mayor candidate Michele Guttenberger (139 total municipal)—or variant spellings of their names—reeled in 420 of the 4,967 combined municipal votes. Of the council votes, the trio reeled in a combined 271 of 3,239, or 8 percent. Of the mayor votes, it grabbed a combined 142 of 1,728, or 8 percent.

And though Republican incumbents Sylvia Petillo, running for mayor, Councilman John Young and newcomer Estelle Klein, shooting for council, ran formally unopposed and won easily, Paulenich said Wednesday that the write-in results signaled a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the borough's current regime among some voters.

"Anger is only one letter short of danger," he said. "And the town is in danger of going into default. I think the voters want more transparency and accountability because from what I see happening in Hopatcong is criminal."

Young declined comment Wednesday. Petillo, Guttenberger, Modes and Klein couldn't be reached immediately Wednesday.

Petillo pulled in 1,473, or 85 percent, of the mayor votes. Guttenberger grabbed the most write-in mayor votes with 135 of 255 total. She also received four council votes.

On the council side, Young snared 1,465 votes, or 45 percent, and Klein grabbed 1,316, or 41 percent. Modes got the most council write-in nods with 133 out of 458. She also received eight mayor and four freeholder votes. Paulenich earned the second-most with 134. He also got one mayor and one freeholder vote.

One of the biggest problems the write-in candidates faced, aside from their late entrance and relative obscurity, was the complexity of their own names. Names of write-in candidates must be spelled correctly to count.

"That's what we feared," said Paulenich, who spent hours the day before the election with Modes and Guttenberger in front of the Dunkin Donuts and post office passing out flyers containing the candidates' names with. "None of us have really common names."

The trio's campaign began in earnest Nov. 5 when Paulenich suggested the idea to Modes and Guttenberger in the comments section of Patch article, Paulenich said.

View the write-in vote PDFs to the right.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article included freeholder votes into the municipal total for write-in candidates Mara Modes, Michele Guttenberger and Randall Paulenich.