Newark election results

With 126 absentee ballots to be counted tomorrow morning, the Justice contest in Newark's 2005 village election isn't quite over yet.

Twenty-year incumbent Village Justice Bruce Chambers received 597 votes, and opponent Dan Barrett had 677 votes as of this morning.

Voters of Newark districts 3 through 9 went to the polls yesterday to determine who would be seated on the Village Board for the next four years.

Republican Mayor Peter Blandino, unopposed, received 924 votes. He will begin his second term on April 1.

Topping the list in number of votes for two Village Trustee seats was Francis Mason, Jr., who previously served on the village board, with 823 votes. Mason will join incumbent Trustee John Bailey, Jr., on the board. Bailey garnered 697 votes to begin a second term.

Both Bailey and Mason were challenged by newcomer Democrat Monica Lyon and write-in candidate Dick Colacino. Lyon received 514 votes, in her first political race. The write-in ballots will be counted tomorrow morning when absentee ballots are.

Colacino's write-in candidacy was publicized through several newspaper ads, and television advertisements. As a write-in candidate, Colacino, who is not a resident of the village, would have had to comply with residency requirements, had he won a seat on the board.

The write-in procedure, as well as other problems with voting machines resulted in many comments. Alleged problems were lack of assistance from election workers on the write-in procedure, being locked out after writing in a name, no paper in the write-in slot, a 'dead' voting machine. It was reported that in Districts 3 and 5, the paper was installed 'backwards' in the machines, making votes difficult to read. According to Arcadia Democratic Committee Chair Tony Comella, in both of those same districts, Chambers, running on the Democrat's line, lost by one vote.

Another glitch in voting was that several citizens reported that they were allowed to vote on a machine designated for District 3, when they live in District 5, and vice versa.

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