A Republican incumbent in New Jersey who narrowly lost his re-election bid last month is suing to toss out several mail-in ballots, including his daughter’s.
According to the Observer-Tribune, the Morris County Republican Party plans to file a lawsuit contesting the results of the November election after Tom Baio, a Mendham Township Republican committeemen, narrowly lost his re-election bid to Democrat Lauren Spirig by just three votes.
In a statement Thursday, the chair of the county’s Republican Party, Laura Ali accused several young Democrats of voting by mail in the election despite not meeting the state’s residency requirements. She singled out the daughter of the county’s Democratic chair Amalia Duarte. Duarte’s daughter is a recent college graduate who lives in Tennessee.
What the county’s GOP officials failed to mention though was that another voter who allegedly violated these residency requirements is Baio’s own daughter, Ariana Baio, and that he had mailed the ballot to her earlier this year. Ariana lives in New York City and works as a journalist.
“Like many parents driven by a sense of duty, we were wrong to advance the [vote-by-mail ballot] to my daughter, Ariana. My daughter did answer the call of duty and did vote by the mail-in ballot,” Baio told the Observer-Tribune. “We all need to correct this behavior. As parents, and as citizens of towns as great as Mendham, I call on all Mendham residents next year to heed this example. As shameful as it is, we need to correct this behavior. I know I will.”
According to state law, a resident must be a U.S. citizen at least 18 years old and live in a county for at least 30 days before the election.
Asked why she failed to mention Baio’s daughter in her statement Ali told the newspaper: “Tom’s daughter is a Democrat and voted the Democrat ticket. We had nothing to do with her vote.”
The four-member Board of Election Commissioners, which consists of two Republicans and two Democrats already voted to certify the results of the election.
“We’ve never had a recount in a Mendham Township election, let alone this type of divisiveness,” Duarte said. “Local and county Republican operatives are trying to pit neighbor against neighbor.”
This “sends a clear message to young voters across Mendham Township that the Republican Party does not value your participation,” Duarte added. “They don’t want your input in the affairs of our township, and want to deprive them of the most fundamental right that we have in our democratic system.”
