CORRECTION: Local GOP Committee To Only Have One New Member

New information from the borough clerk’s and county clerk’s office has resulted in a correction on the committee members of the local Republican party.

In communicating with Roselle Park Borough Clerk Andrew Casais, even though there were no petitions filed for Ward 2, District 2 and former mayor Joseph Accardi received one (1) write-in vote, it did not meet the threshold of two (2) votes to be a viable write-in candidate.

The issue stems from a signature calculation based on voters in the district. Roselle Park has five wards and two districts in each ward. Each political committee can have two committee members for each of the 10 districts – one man and one woman – for a total of 20 committee members.

These political committee elections are held every other year with the Democratic committee holding its election on odd-numbered years and the Republican committee holding theirs on even-numbered years. In order file as a candidate for a committee, the number of signatures on a petition must be – at least – 5% of the total votes cast by the voters of the political party at the last primary election where a member of the General Assembly was elected, but not less than one (1) signature.

The number of Republican voters for the 2017 primary election – the year where a member of the General Assembly was elected – in Ward 2, District 2 was 34. Five percent of that was two. According to Mr. Casais, write-in votes would be considered the equivalent of petition signatures; had Mr. Accardi received just one more vote, he would have met the threshold and become a committee member.

In comparison, the 5% threshold for Ward 2, District 1 – the district Robert Domanski received three votes for – was only one (1) which means he will become the Roselle Park Municipal Republican Committee member  for his district.

By way of information, the borough clerk added that because the borough’s total population is less than 14,000 people, the cap – or maximum – number of required signatures for a townwide race is 25. Should Roselle Park’s population exceed 14,000 then the legal cap would be 50.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Roselle Park had a population of 13,297 with an estimated population of 13,638 in 2016.

A table with votes cast and the 5% minimum threshold for each of the ten (10) districts in Roselle Park is available below:

WARDDISTRICT
DEMOCRAT
REPUBLICAN
Votes Cast
5%
Votes Cast
5%
W1D1
57
3
27
1
W1D2
72
4
29
1
W1 TOTAL
129
6
56
3
W2D1
65
3
18
1
W2D2
81
4
34
2
W2 TOTAL
146
7
52
3
W3D1
54
3
10
1
W3D2
54
3
35
2
W3 TOTAL
108
5
45
2
W4D1
43
2
25
1
W4D2
54
3
28
1
W4 TOTAL
97
5
53
3
W5D1
55
3
17
1
W5D2
93
5
21
1
W5 TOTAL
148
7
38
2
BOROUGH TOTAL
628
31
244
12
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