How Westfield Voted: School Board, President, Marijuana, And More

Caren Lissner
Updated ·4 min read

WESTFIELD, NJ — The Union County Clerk posted Tuesday that after revealing a small percentage of local election results Tuesday night, more numbers may not be released until Saturday, with certification to come on Nov. 20. This includes the Westfield school board race (see preliminary numbers below).

But some area races have been decided.

Rep. Tom Malinowski beat Tom Kean, Jr. for 7th District Congress on Tuesday with approximately 55 percent of the vote. The victory came after a race in which Malinowski was subject to heated — and, some said, false — attacks.

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The Westfield Democratic Organization posted on Tuesday, "Congrats to Tom Malinowski for congress for winning his re-election bid! First Democrat to win re-election in CD-7 since 1978! Thank-you Westfield for all the phone banking, lit drops, canvassing, and donations. We helped make this happen!"

As of 10 p.m. on Tuesday, with 12 percent of districts reporting, these were the candidates leading in the Westfield Board of Education race for three seats:

Leila Morrelli, 3,755

Sonal Patel, 3,356 votes

Sahar Aziz, 3,180

Paul Monusky, 2,785

Kent Diamond, 1,983

Priti Dave, 1,900

Wendy Rogers, 1,840

Deborah Feldman-Kahn, 1,792

David Sexton, 1,507

Eldy Pavon, 1,169

Write in, 321

A county official said Tuesday that the numbers were unofficial results for machine and vote-by-mail ballots. Watch Patch for updates.

How Union County voted: President and marijuana

In Union County, with only 15 percent of districts reporting, 72 percent of the vote for president, or 88,984 votes, went to former Vice President Joe Biden. Another 32,422 votes went to President Donald Trump. Libertarian Jo Jorgensen drew 480 votes, and other third-party and write-in candidates amassed around 1,000 votes total.

For the vote to legalize marijuana usage, about 68 percent of Union County voters were in favor. The totals were 72,370 to 33,467.

For more on the New Jersey totals and public questions, click here.

Prior school board race information

Here is a prior story on the Board of Education election.

The candidates and their slates/slogans were:

  • Wendy H. Rogers (Bright Futures)

  • Deborah Feldman-Kahn (Bright Futures)

  • David Sexton (Bright Futures)

  • Leila Morrelli (Preparing Tomorrow's Leaders)

  • Paul Monusky (Preparing Tomorrow's Leaders)

  • Sahar Aziz (Preparing Tomorrow's Leaders)

  • Sonal Patel (Teacher + Progress + Compassion)

  • Kent Diamond (incumbent)

  • Priti Dave

  • Eldanydia Pavon

The candidates shared their platforms and thoughts in letters, social media posts, and in candidate profiles.

Sahar Aziz of Preparing Tomorrow's Leaders discussed reforming the board's communication process. "Whether it's on a daily basis when you're on the soccer field or at a marching band event, post-COVID, or in the community downtown," she said, "being accessible and being available, and being responsive."

Several of the candidates talked about coronavirus.

Candidate Eldanydia "Eldy" Pavon wrote in a Facebook post, "I am proud to be part of a community that makes it their focus to stay safe in order to be able to provide our students some small sense of normalcy during this unprecedented school year."

She also noted her unique experience: "As the mother of two children, one with special needs, it was important to my family that we found a community that not only had a history of educational excellence but also a welcoming and inclusive community. We found both of these when we made our move to Westfield in 2013."

Sonal Patel, who has a master's degree in educational leadership from Lehigh, wrote in a letter, "We must foremost safeguard the health and safety of students, staff, and the community ... Our schools must continuously and flexibly re-calibrate plans based on the dynamically changing coronavirus situation to keep students and staff healthy and safe ... COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges for our students. We must anticipate and bridge any learning gaps caused by the coronavirus."

Leila Morrelli said that it was important to have well-trained counselors in the schools.

Here is past Patch coverage of the elections, profiles, and the schools:

More information on the school board and the recent race can be found under the Board tab on the district website https://www.westfieldnjk12.org.

For full coverage of the 2020 election in New Jersey, go here: New Jersey Elections 2020

Got news? Email caren.lissner@patch.com. To be the first to get news alerts with breaking stories in Westfield, or to get a free local newsletter each morning, sign up for Patch breaking news alerts or daily newsletters.

This article originally appeared on the Westfield Patch