PATERSON PRESS

Paterson election included ballots from out-of-towners and the dead, report says

Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press

PATERSON – Three dead people seemingly tried to vote in Paterson’s recent elections, and for what it’s worth, none of them listed the two cemeteries located in the city as an address.

The ballots from the deceased were listed on an election report released on Friday detailing the reasons why 3,274 votes – or 20 percent of those submitted – were rejected in Paterson all-vote-by-mail elections.

The report showed one person may have attempted to vote twice, so her ballots were disqualified. Another 21 ballots were submitted for voters who had moved out of the city, so those also were not counted.

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As multiple law enforcement agencies probe possible irregularities in use of mail-in votes in Paterson, candidates and activists repeatedly have asserted that election fraud took place, allegations fueled by the discovery of what officials say were hundreds of improperly bundled ballots at mailboxes in the city and neighboring Haledon.

The report released on Friday by the Passaic County Board of Elections makes no mention of any ballots being rejected because of the bundling or possible fraud.

The most common reason for the votes’ disqualification was that election officials decided the signatures on the ballots didn’t match those on file in voter registration records. The report listed 1,214 rejections because of ballot signatures, which accounted for 37 percent of all those that were disqualified.

Most of the other disqualifications stemmed from a variety of flaws involving the ballots not being filled out the right way. About 1,000 of those rejections covered problems with the section of the ballot that must be filled out by the “bearer,” the official title for anyone who delivers the ballot on behalf of the voter.

Five of the six incumbents won the city’s ward elections. The exception was Bill McKoy, who has served on the council representing the 3rd Ward for the past 20 years. McKoy has filed a petition for a recount, along with two other second-place finishers, Nakima Redmon in the 1st Ward  and Mohammed Akhtaruzzaman in the 2nd Ward.