Only two candidates formally sought three seats on the borough school board. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A write-in candidate expects to join the Red Bank Board of Education when it reorganizes January 5.
And as telegraphed by early results from the November 3 election, a newcomer has displaced Red Bank Regional High board’s president.
As of late Thursday afternoon, the Monmouth County clerk’s completed but still unofficial vote tally confirmed wins by incumbent board member Jennifer Herold Garcia, who drew 3,149 votes, and newcomer Laura Camargo, with 3,106.
But a third seat went unsought.
Voters cast 92 write-in ballots, with Ellen P. McArthur getting 68, followed by former council member Mark Taylor, with 15, according the clerk’s website.
Reached Wednesday night, before the results were updated to indicate all forms of ballots had been processed, McArthur told redbankgreen that she had encouraged friends to write in her name, so the outcome was not a total surprise.
If the tally is certified, she intends to accept the election and serve on the board, she said.
“But first, I would demand a recount to get all those other votes changed,” McArthur joked.
In other contested school board elections:
• Newcomer Stephanie Albanese beat longtime Red Bank Regional High incumbent and current president John Garofalo by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
Albanese won 2,393 votes, compared to Garofalo’s 1,250.
• John Venino topped incumbent Eugene Koster in the race for Little Silver representative to the RBR board, 1,587 to 1,300.
• In Little Silver, Carrie Glynn, Marc Gasperino and Maria Wood were the top three votegetters among eight candidates for three seats on the borough board of ed.
Glynn had 19.2 percent of the vote; Gasperino, 17.3; and Wood, 17.1.
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