Mendham Township election suit escalates: Dems say Chris Christie's kids voted illegally

A bitter election controversy in Mendham Township is heading to court next week, with both Democrats and Republicans alleging that illegal mail-in ballots were cast by non-residents in a race that flipped a local seat from red to blue last year.

Now, according to legal briefs filed in Morristown, the conflict has grown to include allegations of improper voting by two children of the township's most famous resident: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Former Deputy Mayor Thomas Baio filed a lawsuit last month to contest a three-vote loss to Democrat Lauren Spirig that cost the incumbent Republican his seat on the Township Committee. The suit followed a recount and certification of the outcome in November by the Morris County Clerk's Office.

The suit, filed in state Superior Court, alleged that more than 30 mail-in ballots had been cast by former township residents or non-residents and asked the court to invalidate those votes. It identified the alleged offenders by name, noting they all voted Democratic.

Several were the children of township residents who the suit said no longer live at home, including the daughter of Amalia Duarte, a Township Committee member who also leads the Morris County Democratic Committee.

On Tuesday, Baio's attorney filed a memorandum that knocked the number of allegedly improper votes down to 19. Democrats filed their own brief — and drew Christie's children into the dispute.

Votes by Andrew and Sarah Christie challenged

A petition filed by Spirig's attorney, Brett Pugach, counters Baio's argument with a list of 10 other mail-in voters whose residency the Democrat wants to challenge, including the former governor's son and daughter, Andrew and Sarah.

The Spirig filing also seeks to reinstate two Democratic votes with the expectation that those ballots, along with the 10 other invalidations, would be sufficient to confirm Spirig's victory unless almost every vote challenged by Baio is rejected.

"I am happy to let the judicial process unfold and do whatever a judge tells me to do at any given point, and in the meantime just serve the community that I'm really excited to serve," Spirig said in an interview.

Emails sent to Christie's Morristown law office seeking comment weren't immediately returned on Thursday.

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The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial next week. With the case pending, Spirig was sworn in to office Jan. 5 at the township's annual reorganization meeting. That left Republicans with a 3-2 edge on the governing body.

At the committee's previous meeting, in December, Baio faced a gantlet from residents and other critics who urged him to accept the results and concede.

Some critics called the court challenge an "embarrassment" to Mendham Township and suggested the lawsuit echoed unsubstantiated claims of election fraud by former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

'Throwing our kids under the bus'

"We've got an issue that's gone international, and we're a laughingstock," former Democratic candidate Martin Slayne told the committee. He urged Baio not to have "national politics bringing in stuff that our community doesn't want and need."

"I'm so disappointed that now you're throwing our kids under the bus like this," Duarte said to Baio during the Dec. 20 meeting, noting that the Republican was challenging only a handful of the 700 mail-in ballots cast in the election.

Others argued for letting the court case proceed.

"This isn't anything about the national issues or being an election-denier," Morris County Republican Committee Chairwoman Laura Ali said in an interview. "We're not subscribing to that 'everything is fraud whenever you lose.' It's about a local election and people that are submitting vote-by-mail ballots that don't live in the town. It's a problem I suspect that is in more towns than Mendham Township."

"If somebody voted that shouldn't have, we need to correct that.," state Sen. Anthony Bucco, a Morris Republican, said when asked about the challenge. "We need to correct the voter rolls."

In the memo filed Tuesday to Superior Court Judge Stuart Minkowitz, Baio's attorney, Tim Howes, said of the 19 voters he flagged: "Each was registered to vote at an address in Mendham Township. Each is domiciled somewhere other than Mendham Township. Each is affiliated with the Democratic Party. Each voted by mail-in ballot in the election."

"Some of the out-of-town voters declared their non-Mendham residence on social media (Linked-in and Facebook)," the filing added. "At least one is registered to vote in another state. Some sold their homes before the election. And they voted in great enough numbers to swing the election from Republican to Democrat."

Howes also alleged that one ballot cast for Baio was improperly invalidated and should be counted.

Baio's suit asks the court to "restrain" Spirig from taking office. The election should be invalidated and Baio certified as the winner of the three-year term, it says.

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com 

Twitter: @wwesthoven

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Mendham NJ election lawsuit: Chris Christie kids' votes challenged