From 10 Clerk-certified Teaneck Council candidates running individually on September 6 there had emerged by COB on Friday September 16 a far different Council race.

The number of candidates submitted for inclusion on the November 8 election ballot had been reduced by one (to 9) with the formal withdrawal from the race of previously-certified candidate David Highet

·     Of the 9 remaining candidates 6 had – prior to the ballot position drawing – formally informed the Township Clerk that they were running together in one of two slates to be bracketed together.

These are the results which Town Clerk Ruccione announced he was submitting to the County Clerk for ballot preparation at 2:20 pm Friday afternoon: 

Four candidates running under the slogan RISE FOR TEANECK are to be bracketed together and thus will appear together – in alphabetical order – as follows:

·     Denise Belcher

·     Danielle Gee

·     Hillary Goldberg

·     Chondra Young

And because this slate of four were second in the Clerks ballot position drawing, they will be listed on the ballot as Nos. 2,3,4 and 5 (see diagram below) 

Two candidates running under the slogan MOVING TEANECK FORWARD TOGETHER are to be bracketed and thus will appear together – in alphabetical order – as follows

·     Keith Kaplan

·     Desiree Ramos Reiner

And because this slate of two were the fourth candidates in the Clerk’s ballot position drawing, they will be listed as Nos. 7 and 8 on the ballot (see diagram below).

The three other candidates, each of whom is running individually (each with a slogan) will be – in alphabetical order:

·     Anthony Bruno (slogan: ANTHONY BRUNO 2022 FOR TEANECK COUNCIL)

·     Latisha Garcia (slogan COMMITTED TO COMMUMNITY; DEDICATED TO PROGRESS) and

·     Elie Y. Katz (slogan MOVING TEANECK FORWARD) 

And because each of these candidates running individually were drawn individually, Katz will on the ballot be #1, Bruno #6 and Garcia 9#,

At the public ballot drawing conducted by the Town Clerk and his staff, there were, then, five slips of paper drawn from a secure ballot box, unfolded and placed on the table under the watchful eyes of 5 candidates and others (a snip of them can be seen at Click Here. ) 

There are many noteworthy features of this process about which voters should be aware:

1.  There are four Council seats to be selected by the voters in 2022 meaning that 3 members of the current 7-member Council (Orgen, Pagan & Schwartz) will remain in office until their terms end in 2024; 

2.   The fact that candidates have coalesced to bracket themselves and be listed together under a common slogan means that those candidates present themselves together for voter consideration as a slate with similar views. But each voter may select 4 candidates from any of the 9 candidate options;

3.  The full 4-member slate of candidates running under the RISE FOR TEANECK slogan are for, the first time in Teaneck, all women each of whom has distinctive professional training and experience; 

4.  There are just two members of the current council running as incumbents; two other members (Dunleavy and Romney-Rice) chose not to run again;

5.  Most of the 9 candidates have filed their campaign committees with the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) – two (Bruno & Katz) have not filed as of 9/16. 

6.  Election laws permit candidates who originally filed separately to merge some or all of their campaign finances in a joint campaign committee. 

Voices wants to remind its readers that for many voters the election could begin within 10 days. For those who have signed up for mail-in voting, their ballots are now scheduled to arrive during the week of 9/25