For the second time this election season, borough staff reported a data entry error that caused a planning commission candidate vote total to be reported lower than it actually was.
Election official Mike Denker kicked off Tuesday night’s election canvass explaining that a stray semi-colon in a spreadsheet resulted in 45 votes not being counted for Nate Reams. He said he had noticed the error on Tuesday.
The assembly spent the beginning of its meeting canvassing the recent municipal election.
While planning commissioner Erika Merklin also had an undercount due to what Denker described as a data entry error moving votes from the absentee ballot scanner to the borough’s results spreadsheet.
Nine questioned or special needs ballots and 32 absentee ballots postmarked on Election day were reviewed. The only race that fell within that margin was on the planning commission where the fourth-highest vote-getter Nick Szatkowski was just 23 votes ahead of George Campbell at the end of election night on Oct. 6.
With the canvassing results, it was verified that Szatkowski would make it onto the planning commission, beating Campbell with 553 votes.
The other race results are unchanged. Doug Olerud received 867 votes for mayor. For assembly, Beau Bradley received 591 votes and Anne Marie Palmieri received 652 votes. Incoming planning commission members Zeke Frank received 703 votes, Erika Merklin received 625 votes, Nate Reams received 672 votes. In the school board race, Carlos Jimenez received 890 votes, Kevin Shove got 685 votes, Michael Wald got 601 votes, and Jenn Walsh got 738 votes.
The initiative and proposition vote results also remained the same. Voters ushered in a new severance tax and voted out a seasonal sales tax implemented last year. They also voted down proposals to reduce the senior property tax exemption, and another than would have returned the planning commission to appointed, rather than elected, seats, and
The assembly will verify the results and swear in new elected officials during its October 27 meeting.