Take Back East Orange in November
The Essex County and East
Orange Democrats think the election was over on June 5th when
Lester Taylor and the Line A council were "elected" by
a majority of East Orange voters. But were they?
As of June 18th, County and
city records show that 10,133 total registered voters cast
ballots in the Tuesday, June 4, election. Lester Taylor was the
top vote-getter with 3,397; Kevin Taylor came in second with
2,374; Carol Clark came in third with 2,206; Robert Bowser, took
fourth place with 2,130; and Tonya Parker-Lemon placed fifth with
26 total votes.
According to the East Orange
Record/Transcript, "That means Taylor ( and the mix of ward
Council persons with whom he ran on Line A) are the presumptive
nominees of the Democratic Party for the upcoming November
municipal elections for East Orange mayor and City Council."
Is that true?
Let's pretend that the June
4th Primary was between the top two runners, Lester Taylor
(3,397) who accepted his win, and Kevin Taylor (2,374), who did
not concede the election. But that leaves 2,206 voters who did
NOT want Lester Taylor to be their Mayor and who gave their votes
to Carol Clark who went back to her job as Freeholder, and an
additional 2,130 voters who did NOT want Lester Taylor to be
their Mayor and who gave their votes to Robert Bowser, who
conceded the race. KT 2,374 + CC 2,206 + RB 2,130 = 6,710 voters
that did NOT want Lester Taylor to be their mayor, and only 3,397
that chose him.
Fortunately, our founders
provided a solution for this injustice. It is called the
"Write In Vote." Most voters have NEVER written in a
vote in all the years they have been voting. There was no need.
The decisions were always clearly between two choices for the
office. But this year, there will only be one choice on the
November Ballot for Mayor of East Orange. That small section of
the ballot will look something like this:
It seems as if
the 6,710 voters who did not want Lester Taylor have no
choice. They can either NOT vote at all, or they can push the
button and elect Lester Taylor reluctantly. But wait! There IS
another choice. You can press the Write In button, then type in
the name KEVIN TAYLOR on the small keypad at the bottom of the
election machine. Press ENTER when you have finished typing in
his name. When you have done ALL your voting and are ready to
leave the booth, press the Cast Vote button to record your vote. (NOTE: To make a SPACE between KEVIN and
TAYLOR, press the button marked (<||>) on the keypad.)
If all 6,710
voters choose to do that, it will make history. It will be the
first time the mayoral election in East Orange was decided by a
Write In vote of the majority of voters. It will send a clear
message to the Essex County Democratic machine that they do not
run or control the voters of East Orange. And it will set a
precedent for voters to begin sweeping out incumbents who think
their elected positions are careers and not temporary jobs.
Once you have
written in a vote, you can always Write In another. For example,
if you don't like the person who was elected your ward council
person (Ted Green in the Third Ward example shown above), you can
type in the name of the person who is still in the running for
the job. In the third ward, my choice would be Khalid Wright
who also did not concede the election. His name is a little
difficult to spell, but there is no law that says I can't bring
notes into the voting booth and use them to help me in correctly
spelling the names of any and all the candidates for whom I want
to cast Write In votes.
