I see this as an interesting turning point for our city.

Clearly DT cared enough to vote (consistently). The rest of Jersey City doesnt seem to care enough to even select their own representation.

I am not arguing a good or bad point here... Does this mean we are at the beggining of a new Jersey City, where the ways of DT will start to consume the surrounding neighborhoods?

Jersey City runoff elections tend to favor first-place finishers

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 16, 2013 at 12:08 PM

Good news for the first-place winners in Tuesday?s Jersey City City Council elections: history indicates they will likely go on to win their runoff elections.

Since 2001, there have been 12 runoff elections for council races, and in all but one case, the first-place finisher in the first round of balloting won the subsequent runoff.

That one exception occurred in 2001, when every council race resulted in a runoff. Peter Brennan, the current councilman at large who lost on the first ballot that year in his bid to become the Ward A councilman, later scored a strong win in the runoff.

Brennan now faces another runoff. He, Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson and former mayoral aide Omar Perez finished behind Mayor-elect Steve Fulop?s at-large council team: Councilman at large Rolando Lavarro (no stranger to runoffs himself), Daniel Rivera and the Rev. Joyce Watterman.

Only Ward E Councilwoman-elect Candice Osborne won her council race outright on Tuesday night. The remaining eight races will be decided after the Tuesday, June 11 runoff elections.

First-place finishers this time around include former schools chief Charles T. Epps Jr. in Ward A; council aide Khemraj ?Chico? Ramchal in Ward B; retired Jersey City cop Rich Boggiano in Ward C; business owner Michael Yun in Ward D; and Councilwoman Diane Coleman in Ward F.

Fulop has said his No. 1 priority between now and June 11 is helping his candidates win their runoff elections, though only two of his candidates (Ramchal and Coleman) head into the runoffs after finishing in first place Tuesday.

It?s ?crucial? to have a council with Fulop allies, Fulop said yesterday, because otherwise the nine-member body could be ?obstructionist? to his administration.

Having the new mayor-elect on their side could help even those Fulop candidates who came in second place on Tuesday -- he may be able to raise more money for them than the independent candidates (Boggiano and Yun) or Healy's candidate (Epps) will scrape up.

After the 2005 city election, there was only one runoff, for the Ward A council seat. Michael Sottolano won on the first ballot in May and then won the subsequent runoff. Still the Ward A councilman, Sottolano opted to run for a third term this year.

Sottolano faced another runoff in 2009, when he won on the first ballot in May but didn?t win more than 50 percent of the vote. The second-place finisher was Lavarro, who later lost the runoff, too.

Richardson, running for re-election to the Ward F council seat in 2009, also faced a runoff then. She won on the first ballot, and was victorious in the runoff.

Next month?s runoff elections will be the third time Richardson has been forced into a re-match after a May city election.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_runoff_elections_t.html

Quote:

I come on here occasionally if I know the answer to a question someone asks, and because JC List posters are good about linking to my paper's stories.

Voters can register up until Tuesday, 5/21 for the runoff. The City Clerk will be open until 9 p.m. and you can also register with the County Clerk.

Every candidate starts with 0, otherwise they could get two votes from the same voter.

Quote:

It seems many people didn't realize they could vote for more than one candidate. If everyone who voted for a Fulop slate candidate had voted for all three, there would probably be no runoff.

Hi Terrence,

Didn't know you were on here - cool - thanks for the reply. Just for clarification, in the run-off, the candidates start from the "beginning" again in terms of their vote tally? So no votes from the May 14th election are counted toward their totals?

Do you know if someone who isn't registered to vote has time to register and vote for the first time in the run-off?

Appreciate your input.

That's correct. The formula is derived from the number of people who vote in the at-large race, whether they vote for one or all three.

Quote:
Say 50 people go to the polls and vote for each of the at-large candidates of their choice and either one or all three (you get to vote for 3) get 26 votes then that determines the winner.

OK, so it's 50% + 1 of the people voting, not the votes, right? Getting 50% of the votes on a ballot where voters are asked to choose 3 candidates is (I think) mathematically impossible. The highest number of votes you could get would be 33.3% - if every single voter picked you as one of their three votes.

Sorry, I tried to do it as clearly as possible. But I couldn't do it with a formula, so maybe this will help:

Total # of people who voted in the at large race DIVIDED by two PLUS one = the number that the highest vote-getter in the at-large race has to get to avoid a runoff.

Not everyone has to achieve that threshold, just the highest vote-getter.

Still trying to understand the at-large run off election requirement. Is the threshold (explained below, but not clearly) determined by the original election, or the June 11 election voter count? Can someone please translate?

From NJ.com

With only one City Council race decided by Jersey City voters last night, the city is about to see more runoff elections than it has in more than a decade.

Candidates must attain more than 50 percent of the vote to win outright, and last night only Ward E council candidate Candice Osborne met that threshold. Six at-large candidates and two candidates each in Wards A, B, C, D and F will now face off in a re-match on June 11.

But that?s nothing compared to the 2001 municipal election, when every single council race and the mayoral contest resulted in a subsequent runoff election.

That?s the year the late Glenn D. Cunningham defeated Tom DeGise, now the chief executive of Hudson County, in a mayoral runoff, 51 percent to 48 percent.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who last night lost his bid for a third full term to Councilman Steve Fulop, was forced into a runoff in 2001 when he ran for an at-large council slot. He won the runoff, defeating, among others, Carl Czaplicki, who now runs the city Department of Housing, Economic and Commerce as part of Healy?s administration.

In 2005, only Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano was forced into a runoff, defeating former Jersey City Corporation Counsel Karen DeSoto.

The 2009 city contest led to two runoffs: Sottolano again in Ward A, where he defeated Rolando Lavarro, now a councilman at large; and Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson, who defeated pastor Ronnie-Calvin Clark when she was the Ward F councilwoman.

Sottolano opted out of running for re-election this year, while Richardson will face off against Fulop?s at-large council candidates in the June 11 at-large runoff.

Fulop's at-large team -- RLavarro, Daniel Rivera and the Rev. Joyce Watterman -- were the highest vote-getters in that race last night, but they didn't cross a statutory threshold to avoid a runoff. They will now face Healy's team: Richardson, Councilman at large Peter Brennan and former mayoral aide Omar Perez.

The rules for an at-large runoff are a little more complicated than those for the ward races. In order to win outright, one at-large candidate has to get votes from more than 50 percent of the voters who cast a ballot in the at-large race. If at least one candidate achieves that threshold, the next two highest vote-getters win, too, no matter whose mayoral slate they are on and no matter how small their vote totals are.

Watterman was the highest vote-getter last night, with initial estimates putting her haul at 14,756. She would have had to get at least 15,834 votes to win (that's half of the total number of voters who voted in the at-large race, plus one) and bring the next two highest vote-getters into office with her, City Clerk Robert Byrne said last night.

The rules are so confusing, Richardson last night conceded defeat to The Jersey Journal before Byrne notified her and Brennan that they hadn't lost.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... lection.html#incart_river

Yes, it's just as important to vote them out in the runoff election. We need to clear out the city council, or as my 85 year old mother calls it, "That rogues gallery down in city hall".

Does state law require that there be runoffs for council seats? It seems like a waste of time, money and voters' patience.

Don't celebrate yet, voters. There's still work to be done. The runoff election in June will decide ALL other council seats including at-large positions:

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 14, 2013 at 11:22 PM

The Jersey City mayoral race was all but over by 9 p.m., but it?ll take four more weeks before Jersey City knows who will sit on the City Council under a Steve Fulop administration.

Of the nine council races, only Ward E candidate Candice Osborne won outright tonight, winning 3,441 votes, or 67 percent, to Dan Levin?s 1,296, or 25 percent. Businessman Fletcher Gensamer, the third candidate in Ward E, won 375 votes, or 7 percent.

Osborne, 34, took the stage at Zeppelin Hall tonight to cheers from an ebullient crowd.

"I love you, Jersey City!" Osborne shouted.

Asked what she plans to do tomorrow to celebrate, Osborne said, "Sleep, get a massage and spend time with my son."

None of the first-place finishers in the other five wards crossed the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff. City Clerk Robert Byrne said there will be a run-off in the race for the three at-large council seats as well.

Former schools superintendent Charles T. Epps Jr., who ran in Ward A on a ticket headed by Mayor Jerramiah Healy, won 2,480 votes, or 43 percent, with Fulop candidate Frank Gajewski coming in second, with 2,237 votes, or 37 percent.

In Ward B, Fulop candidate Khemraj ?Chico? Ramchal came in first place with 1,643 votes, or 38 percent. Second-place finisher Gerald Meyers, Healy?s candidate, won 1,471 votes, or 34 percent.

Independent Ward C hopeful Rich Boggiano, a retired Jersey City police detective, won 1,496 votes, or 36 votes, with incumbent Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez coming in second with 1,345 votes, or 32 percent. Lopez ran on Fulop?s slate.

In Ward D, Central Avenue business owner and independent candidate Michael Yun came in first place with 2,161 votes, or 43 percent, and he will face Assemblyman Sean Connors in a runoff. Connors, who ran on Fulop?s slate, won 1,715 votes, or 34 percent.

In the closest council race, Ward F Councilwoman Diane Coleman finished in first place, with 2,284 votes, or 42 percent, followed by Healy candidate Jermaine Robinson, a caf? owner who won 2,279 votes, or 42 percent.

The at-large race, in which Fulop?s three candidates (Councilman Rolando Lavarro, Daniel Rivera and the Rev. Joyce Watterman) were the top three vote-getters, seemed to mystify everyone involved. Byrne said there will indeed be a run-off, though Fulop?s camp believed they won outright and Councilwoman at large Viola Richadson, one of Healy?s candidates, thought she was defeated tonight.

?If it?s who the citizens of Jersey City want to represent them, I with them and the best of luck," she said. "God?s Peace and Blessings. I will finally have the opportunity to retire."

For the June 11 runoff, the top six finishers ? all of Fulop?s slate and all of Healy?s slate, which includes Richardson, Councilman at large Peter Brennan and former Healy aide Omar Perez ? will meet once again to determine who will sit on the council starting July 1.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... uncil_r.html#incart_river