By Donald Gilpin

Election 2022 local results are official, following Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri’s investigation into an Election Day scanner failure and County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello’s certification of the vote tally ahead of the state’s November 26 deadline.

Onofri announced last week that his investigation determined that there was no criminal intent or vote tampering during the election. The problem, the investigation concluded, was a human error made in the programming of the voting machines by an employee of Dominion Voting Systems. The error prevented the machines from scanning.

“Despite this setback, on Election Day, all ballots were securely transferred to the Board of Elections office, where they were counted by a bipartisan group of commissioners on high-capacity scanners,” according to a press release from the county clerk’s office. “Every ballot that was cast on Election Day was counted, and the integrity of the election remained intact throughout the process.”

Sollami Covello expressed her appreciation to the prosecutor’s office, as well as the Board of Elections Commissioners and the Office of the Superintendent of Elections for their work to ensure the reliability of the election process. “I am pleased there was no intentional criminal action that created this problem,” she said. “Election integrity is something I have worked hard to ensure and have taken great pride in over the past 17 years serving as Mercer County clerk.”

In a November 12 statement, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes called for a “thorough public review of what went wrong with the voting and a “comprehensive overhaul of the elections process in Mercer County.” He added, “We’ve got too many people in control and the quality of our elections has suffered as a result, undermining people’s faith in the democratic process.”

Princeton voters re-elected Democrats Michelle Pirone Lambros and Mia Sacks, running unopposed, to Princeton Council, and, in the race for three seats on the Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education (BOE), supported the three incumbents Susan Kanter, Dafna Kendal, and Debbie Bronfeld over challengers Margarita “Rita” Rafalovsky and Lishian “Lisa” Wu.

Final counts in the BOE election gave Kanter 4,946 votes (25.28 percent), Kendal 4,601 votes (23.51 percent), Bronfeld 4,365 votes (22.31 percent), Rafalovsky 3,496 votes (17.87 percent), and Wu 2,160 votes (11.04 percent).

The re-elected Board members all expressed their appreciation to the voters for their trust and confidence, and all expressed their enthusiasm at the prospect of continuing to represent the community in working in the best interests of all the students.

Kendal, the current BOE president, emphasized her commitment to equity and excellence at PPS. “Our schools are the pride of our community and we serve most students well,” she wrote in an email. “But we have to do more to help our students of color, students with special needs, and students from low income households to reach their full potential. Equity and excellence are the two main goals I will focus on during the next three years. We have to ensure that all students have access to higher level courses and extracurricular activities while maintaining the academic standards that place our school district among the top districts in the state.”

Kanter, the top vote-getter, saw the election as an affirmation of major initiatives the Board has been working on.

“The district’s new strategic plan will help us to continue to ensure areas of excellence within our schools, while we focus on supporting our most vulnerable learners,” she stated. “This election confirmed that our community wants our Board to support this goal while continuing to plan for growth, maintain our facilities, and focus on sustainability initiatives. The Board must continue to support the social/emotional health of our community, foster a better sense of connection and belonging, while focusing on improving academic outcomes for our diverse group of learners. I look forward to supporting strategies with clear measurables to achieve these goals.”

Bronfeld also highlighted several of her priorities for the upcoming three-year term. “Moving forward, I will continue to speak my mind to ensure every student receives a free and equitable education,” she wrote. “My focus will be on a transparent budget; the continued health and wellness of our staff and student body; plans for future growth; support of safe and secure facilities; and hiring, training, and retaining diverse staff for our district.”

She continued, “I hope that community members who might differ with what I bring to the table and what I support for our students will continue to share their ideas, and engage in healthy discussions on how we can all support an excellent education for every student that attends Princeton Public Schools.”

Rafalovsky, whose election bid fell 869 votes short, stated In a November 23 letter to Town Topics that her concerns were shared by thousands of Princeton residents and that she had succeeded in raising public awareness about the schools’ “declining math proficiency scores” and “falling national rankings.”