By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
Sept. 15 is the last day Asbury Park canidates have to withdraw from the City Council race before the ballots are printed.
At press time newcomer Dougls McQueen said he was withdrawing from the race.
The three members of the Asbury Together team have the top ballot position for the November 8 election.
The team includes incumbent council women Yvonne Clayton and Eileen Chapman and incumbent Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn.
The Citizens for Asbury ticket is second on the ballot and includes Daniel Harris, Stephen Williams and Kenneth E. Saunders, Jr.
Newcomer Ketsia Beaubrun is alone at third on the ballot followed by newcomer Douglas McQueen at the fourth ballot position.
Candidate hopeful Tracy Rogers was disqualified after eight of the required signatures on his petition were deemed inactive by City Clerk Cindy Dye.
Rogers appealed the ruling before Judge Dennis O’Brien in Freehold on Tues., Sept. 13. O’Brien ruled that Dye’s assessment of the signatures was correct, leaving Rogers with only 84 of the required 90 signatures need.
All candidates must have the signatures of 1 percent of the number of registered voters, or 90 in the case of Asbury Park, to be eligible to run.
City Attorney Frederick Raffetto explained that inactive voters are those whose sample ballots are returned by the board of elections.
“That sends up a red flag and then the board sends a confirmation letter to the voter,” he said.
If that confirmation letter is not returned to the board, the voter is put on the state’s list of inactive voters on the Statewide Voter Registration System.
The judge upheld that Dye did her due diligence in rejecting the eight signatures.
Raffetto said the voter would still be allowed to vote if they showed up at the polls with proper identification including proof of address.
Rogers had submitted 130 signatures but 38 of those were disqualified for various reasons, including some voters who inadvertently signed too many petitions.
Voters are only allowed to sign as many petitions as their are seats open.
Dye, when she checks the signatures, is not required by law to investigate those found on the inactive list.
Raffetto said Rogers should have included the board of elections in the suit because they are the ones responsible for putting the voter on the inactive list.
“They are the ones who know what took place,” he said.
“She flagged them and the judge said she did her duty,” he said.
Raffetto said he was also investigating the eligibility of another candidate, Ketsia Beaubrun.
“That is still up in the air. I’m getting all the information, I can’t comment on that,” he said.
