Preliminary Freeholder Results Too Close to Call

Republican incumbents Patrick Scaglione and Mark Caliguire led by a very narrow margin in their quest for new terms on the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders after all precincts were counted in Tuesday's election.

However, with provisional and fax or email ballots still to be counted, the race remained too close to call. After Sandy displaced thousands of New Jersey residents, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno signed an order allowing voters to submit a mail-in ballot application by email or fax. That makes things more uncertain than usual at the end of election day.

Scaglione received 62,495 votes, or 26.20 percent, and Caliguire received 60,578 votes, or 25.39 percent.

Democratic opponents Anthony Pranzateli and William Galtieri were both close behind, earning 59,407 votes and 55,932 votes, respectively. Those translate to 24.90 percent and 23.45 percent, respectively.

There were also a total of 150 write-in votes in the election.

According to the figures from the county, these numbers take into account a total of 28,628 under votes, voters who voted for only one candidate instead of two.

A total of 238,562 votes were cast in the freeholder race. It represented only 59.23 percent of the county's registered voters. This from a county that usually turns out about 80 percent of its registered voters during presidential election years.

The deadline for electronic voting had been extended after email and fax ballots caused headaches Tuesday throughout the state. Once an application was processed by the 5 p.m. deadline on Tuesday, the voter has until Friday at 8 p.m. to submit the ballot and waiver of secrecy.