Ridgewood Residents Petition Village To Consolidate Elections

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — A group of five Ridgewood residents are seeking to consolidate elections in the Village through a ballot question.

To do so, the group had to submit 410 petitions, and the Village Clerk has until July 26 to certify those petitions. As of July 6, the group One Village One Vote says they submitted 570, pushing them one step closer to their ultimate goal.

The proposed question would, if passed, would move Board of Education elections, held annually in April, and Village Council elections, held biannually in May, to the date of the General Election in November.

More petitions than necessary were gathered in part, the group says, because some are expected to be rejected due to signature or residency issues.

However, any rejected petitions have a 10-day window in which the group can correct any errors, or collect additional signatures.

Once the petitions are certified, the Village Manager will present them to the Village Council at a public meeting, in which the council has the opportunity to approve the ordinance on the spot, or put the question on the November ballot.

"We are hopeful that the process will play out fairly and that this binding initiative will appear as written, inclusive of the interpretative statement, on the November 2020 ballot," read a statement from the group. "In that election, the Ridgewood voters will have the opportunity to decide if our elections should be consolidated."

For One Village One Vote, pushing for consolidated elections could solve two issues they believe are problematic: voter turnout and funding.

As a point of reference, the group cites the April 2019 election, in which voters cast ballots on the Ridgewood Public School budget.

Of the 18,262 registered voters, only 2,437 turned out for that election, or 14 percent of the electorate. The election, the group says, cost taxpayers $50,000.

"At best, this election was inefficient and at worst a thoughtless waste of Village resources and taxpayer money," they said.

The Village Council voted to move school board elections back to April in 2019, which allows voters to vote on the school district's budget.

According to a 2018 Patch report, 67 percent of villagers' tax bills go to the school district.

November elections in New Jersey don't require voter approval for school budgets, unless the proposed budget increases by more than 2 percent. In April, however, votes are cast on the budget regardless of increase.

Mayor Ramon Hache, at that 2018 meeting, said the decision was about right and wrong.

"It's not about making people happy. It's about what is right; 67 percent of tax dollars is not a small decision," Hache said. "The right and privilege to vote and the choice to vote, they are not the same. What empowers voters more is whether they choose to exercise it or not."