Middletown's Sanacore Hurt By Ballot Spot In BOE Race: Backers

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — While the rest of New Jersey, and the nation, is reeling at how close the New Jersey governor's race is, right here in Middletown there was another stunner, this time on the school board:

The "Putting Children First" slate of Kate Farley and Jaime Sanacore was split, with Farley receiving the most votes in the race, and Sanacore receiving the fewest.

Blame sheer bad ballot placement, said current Board member Jackie Tobacco and former Middletown Twp. Committeeman Tony Fiore. Both of them backed Sanacore/Farley.

As of Wednesday at noon, here are the Middletown BOE vote counts. These are unofficial machine vote results, as mail-in votes have not yet been counted:

Kate Farley, Putting Children First: 12,668

Joan Minnuies, currently on board, seeking re-election: 12,495

Deborah Wright, currently on the board, seeking re-election: 11,285

Jaime Sanacore, Putting Children First: 7,413

Write-In: 1,744

On the ballot, Minnuies, Farley and Wright were all in a row down the first column, with Sanacore's name in the second column next to Farley's.

"Voters believe candidates running together are in columns. How this wound up in rows most likely cost Mrs. Sanacore her election," said Fiore. "The Monmouth County Clerk's office should have kept the ballot consistent. There are zero examples of a ballot where bracketed candidates running together have ever appeared in this fashion (side by side)."

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon said the names had to be placed side by side due to space limitations on the ballot, and that all Monmouth County towns had to be the same.

"All Board of Election bracketed candidates were placed in rows this year instead of columns due to space limitations on the ballots throughout the county," explained Clerk Hanlon. "Due to the changes in laws which allowed fire elections, school board and other contests to be placed on the November ballot, we have to work within certain special limitations as to what can fit and to have consistency in placement throughout the county."

But it was because Sanacore was not in the first column that voters simply failed to realize she was running with Farley, speculated Tobacco.

"The ballot placement really did a disservice to Jaime," said Tobacco Wednesday morning, calling it "voter confusion."

"I think the county made a huge mistake to put her side by side with Kate, instead of up and down in a column," said Tobacco. "If you don't know enough or are voting quickly, you just vote down the line, as many did in Middletown. Look, many people were focusing on the governor's race in this election and the BOE was secondary."

Sanatore emphasized she wants to stay positive and said she is "supportive of the results."

"Although disappointed in my results, I am grateful my running mate, Kate came out in the lead," Sanacore told Patch Wednesday morning. "She is well positioned to serve Middletown. I’m confident she will ensure that our tax dollars are funding the very best public school education for our children to be successful adults."

"I will continue to advocate for our children and their education and serve my community in any way I can," she added. "I can do both without having been elected."

Fiore, Tobacco criticize Monmouth County Clerk; clerk said decision was made due to "space limitations" on the ballot

Fiore also criticized the county clerk for being what he called "wildly inconsistent" with ballot placement: For example, Tony Perry and running mate Kim Kratz were in a column. And yet in the BOE race, names were side by side.

"Board of Election placement is non-partisan and cannot be compared with partisan races," responded Clerk Hanlon, a Republican. "They are not the same and they do not group by party affiliation."

Sanacore and Farley ran on an agenda similar to Tobacco's, in that all wanted schools to open sooner last year in the pandemic; they do not think that children should be forced to wear masks in school and think masks should be a personal choice. They also want to shorten the current quarantine time for students possibly exposed to a COVID case. Minnuies thinks similarly on all these issues.

"There is no difference between Kate and Jamie; they are the same candidate running on the same values," reiterated Tobacco. "If you like Kate, you liked Jamie."

Wright is very different than Farley/Sanacore, and also Minnuies and Tobacco, in that she generally follows Gov. Murphy's mask mandates and was not fighting to reopen schools last year.

"There's no way Deb earned those 11,000- some votes; she rode on Kate's coattails because of the ballot placement," said Tobacco. "I don't think Deb's numbers reflect an accurate representation of what Middletown voters want. It's not personal. I don't believe what she stands for is what Middletown voters stand for."

Wright did not immediately respond.

"Look at the way Middletown voted in this race," continued Tobacco. "The Republicans on the Township Committee, Perry and Kim, got more than double the votes than the Democrats. I do not think Middletown voters support the progressive agenda that Deb is a proponent of."

Middletown has for years been a Republican-majority town, voting for Trump in the past two presidential elections.

"I do think that with the Virginia election, how close the NJ governor's race is and with the Senate and Assembly races, that a message was sent that parents are not going to be pushed aside anymore for a progressive agenda being implemented in our schools," said Tobacco, who is a registered Republican but describes herself as politically moderate.

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