Passaic County election results are in. First Republican commissioner elected in 10 years
Passaic County officials ended two weeks of electoral uncertainty late Tuesday by releasing the provisional vote tallies needed to close out several close races.
At the top of the ticket, the provisional votes reshuffled a crowded six-person race for three seats on the county Board of Commissioners. Incumbent Democrat Commissioner John Bartlett, who trailed former Republican Wayne Councilwoman Aileen Rivera by 11 votes for third place after the mail-in vote count, stormed past to cement second place and reelection by more than 900 votes, records show.
Bartlett said it was a stressful two weeks, but he feels gratified by the voters' support. With reelection, Bartlett earned the right to chair the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority for the next two years.
"I'm going to be chairing the authority at just the time when billions of dollars of new infrastructure money is going to be flowing into New Jersey," he said Wednesday morning. "That's going to be a remarkable opportunity for Passaic County and the region to grow our economy and improve our interconnectivity."
Joining Bartlett (51,515 votes) on the Board of Commissioners in 2022 will be incumbent Democrat Commissioner Cassandra "Sandi" Lazzara (52,552) and Republican Nicolino "Nick" Gallo (51,155), according to the complete but still unofficial vote count. Gallo, a Totowa businessman, is the first Republican nominee to win a seat on the county-controlling board in more than a decade.
Tuesday's provisional count also confirmed a victory for New York-based attorney Zoila Cassanova, a Democrat, in the county surrogate race. Cassanova trailed Aisha Mamkej, the Republican nominee and a county election official, by more than 200 votes before the mail-in and provisional ballot counts. She ultimately won by more than 1,650 votes.
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The election proved far closer than local Democrats had expected, leaving Republicans "pleasantly surprised" with the vote count, said John Traier, a Republican representative on the Passaic County Board of Elections. Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans nearly 2 to 1 in the county. Outside of the dense population zones in the county's east, most districts saw voters prefer Republican candidates in this year's county-level elections, records show.
Provisional ballots were initially expected to be counted in full on Monday. However, the count was spread across two days to permit representatives from both political parties to attend as required, officials said.
David Zimmer is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Passaic County election results: 1st GOP commissioner in decade wins
