On Saturday, Anthony Cirz won a redo of a February fire commissioner election in Toms River after a write-in vote mishap and a series of other ballot issues forced a runoff.
In February, two seats were up for grabs. The first was claimed by Richard Tutela, who won 690 votes and whose victory was not in question. Behind Tutela were Cirz and Michael Hopson, who, according to initial certified results, received 615 votes. The initial certified results also showed James Golden to receive 614 votes and a total of five write-in votes.
After the certification, election officials apparently realized two of the write-in votes had gone to candidates listed on the ballot — one to Cirz, and one to Golden. Dawn Halliwell, the Fire District’s financial clerk, asked the Ocean County Board of Elections whether to count write-in votes for candidates who also appeared on the ballot. She was informed the Board of Election “would not count” those votes, but Halliwell then made a “unilateral decision” to count the votes anyway, saying the fire district “d[id]n’t have a policy and it’s our election.” An appellate court later ordered a redo.
The Ocean County Board of Elections oversaw the redo.
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