Passaic County election update results in two lead changes and one deadlock

David M. Zimmer, NorthJersey.com
Updated ·2 min read

The Friday night release of updated election results in Passaic County shook up a couple of close races and landed another in a deadlock.

The update incorporated nearly 4,000 mail-in and provisional ballots and made the close race for the third and final three-year term on the Little Falls school board even closer. Separated by just four votes after Election Day, incumbents Nicole Smith and Desiree DiBuono are now tied with 1,039 votes each, setting a likely recount, according to county records.

Though current board members, DiBuono and Smith have yet to win a school board election. Both were appointed to fill a vacancy. DiBuono was sworn in just last month.

Regardless of the winner, 2024 will be the last year in the foreseeable future that the Little Falls school board has nine members. Election Day saw voters approve a ballot question asking permission to eliminate one trustee position during each of the next two election cycles to get the board down to seven members.

A poll worker collect voting authority cards from Westwood residents as they cast their ballots at the Westwood Community Center in Westwood, NJ on Tuesday Nov. 7, 2023.
A poll worker collect voting authority cards from Westwood residents as they cast their ballots at the Westwood Community Center in Westwood, NJ on Tuesday Nov. 7, 2023.

Elsewhere in Passaic County, Friday's election update saw two school board candidates overcome deficits to seemingly win three-year terms 10 days after polls closed, records show.

In Paterson, Joel Ramirez eliminated a 90-vote deficit on Corey Teague, who fell to fifth in the nine-person race for three seats on the board. Vincent Arrington remains fourth but is now 28 votes behind Ramirez instead of 14 votes behind Teague, records show. And, in West Milford, former Board of Education President Lynda Van Dyk went from 20 votes down to 13 votes ahead of lifelong resident and first-time candidate Joseph Werner for the third and final open seat.

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Most of Passaic County's Election Day leads were stretched by Friday's vote count update. In Haledon, Motez Ramadan extended a 10-vote lead over Roxana Cerna for a seat on the local school board to 17 votes, while Jose Zamoa stretched a nine-vote lead over Hilton Gonzalez to represent the town on the Manchester Regional High School board to 16. In Wanaque, Barry Hain extended a 12-vote margin to 13 over Carolyn Bruenjes in the race for the final seat of three on the school board.

There were no major changes Friday in the races for seats on the county's municipal governing bodies. In the closest race, the Ward 5 council race in Wayne, incumbent Democrat Francine Ritter extended her lead from 48 to 59 votes over Republican Mathew Cavallo. Ritter, who did not declare victory immediately after Election Day, has 816 votes to Cavallo's 757, records show.

Nov. 25 is the deadline for election recount applications in New Jersey. The county clerk's deadline to send the official results to the secretary of state is Nov. 27.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Passaic County election results update: Little Falls school board tie