By PETE WALTON
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office is looking into the allegations of improper voting in a recent local election.
“The prosecutor’s office can confirm the existence of an active investigation into allegations that certain individuals may have improperly registered to vote and/or voted in a previous election in Monmouth County,” Mark Spivey, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said in a statement. “While we cannot discuss any specific details of the investigation at this time, what we can say is that we take any and all allegations of interference with free and fair elections with the utmost seriousness, as ensuring their integrity is a fundamental responsibility of any functioning democracy.”
The political news web site New Jersey Globe says it has confirmed that state and federal law enforcement officials — including the Federal Bureau of Investigation — are reviewing allegations of election fraud in Allenhurst. The site founded by David Wildstein, a former senior Port Authority official during the Christie administration, said the investigation also includes nonpartisan elections in Deal and Loch Arbour.
According to early results released by Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon, 222 write-in votes were cast in the May 14 election in Loch Arbour. Two candidates listed on the ballot received 105 votes each, while incumbent Mayor Paul V. Fernicola tallied 66 votes. The county Board of Elections has yet to release a breakdown of the write-in voting.
Though the United States Census Bureau estimates the population of Allenhurst was 469 in 2022, the Globe said that there were 597 people registered to vote in the borough at the time of the election.
In Allenhurst, according to preliminary returns released by the county clerk, three newcomers were elected to the Board of Commissioners. Challengers Theresa Manziano-Santoro, Joseph Dweck and Frieda Adjmi defeated two incumbents, Mayor David McLaughlin and Richard Cumiskey, and their running mate, Mark Horowitz.
Updated vote totals showed Manziano-Santoro led with 251, followed by Dweck and Adjmi with 241 and 230 respectively. McLaughlin received 119 votes, Cuminsky 104 and Horowitz 99.
Though many homes in the three oceanfront towns are summer residences, citizens can only vote in one location, referred to as their “domicile.”
According to the Globe, state Superior Court Judge Kathleen Sheedy found that one man who tried to vote in Allenhurst actually lived in Brooklyn. The man could not produce documentation proving that he lived in Allenhurst.
Deal and Loch Arbour have also experienced an increase in voter registration. Loch Arbour, with an estimated population of 230 in 2022, now has 285 registered voters — a 96.6 percent increase in voter registration in one year, according to the Globe. Registrations in Deal are up nearly 38 percent, the Globe say.
