The Asbury Park Press has covered the forced removal of Joy DeSanctis as a challenger on Election Day and adds some new information.
From the story:
A borough resident who was volunteering as a challenger on election day believes she was unlawfully removed from her post by a Belmar police officer on Nov. 4.
Joy DeSanctis, the Republican campaign manager for Jim Bean, Mayor Matt Doherty’s opponent in the election, was escorted out of the polling location at borough hall around 4 p.m. by Lt. Thomas Cox.
Borough Administrator Colleen Connolly said she asked Cox to take the action. She said she she talked to someone at the Monmouth County Board of Elections who informed her that two deputy attorney generals had authorized DeSanctis’ badge to be removed for her alleged disruptive behavior, which included “threats to call a judge to shut down the election and blanketly challenging people,” Connolly said…………………..
Connolly can’t name the person she spoke to. If someone had just authorized you to have a duly appointed challenger forcibly removed from a polling place wouldn’t you GET THEIR NAME? And wouldn’t you want to get it IN WRITING?
Additionally, neither Connolly nor Doherty ever said anything about DeSanctis’ “threats to call a judge to shut down the election” when DeSanctis asked repeatedly at the November 18 Council meeting why she was removed. Maybe Connolly and Doherty went back and watched the video of that meeting and then it made them remember that someone said that DeSanctis threatened to call a judge. (That kind of thing has happened before.)
Further into the story we hear:
John Hutchinson, a member of Belmar’s zoning board who was working as a challenger in the afternoon, said he texted Doherty after he heard DeSanctis talking to a voter who was filling out a provisional ballot.
“That’s like going into a voting booth and talking to a person while they are voting,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said he verbally confronted DeSanctis about the incident before he texted Doherty, but DeSanctis denies ever speaking with him or any voters that day.
Doherty said he relayed Hutchinson’s complaint to Connolly, who then called Borough Attorney Michael DuPont and asked him how to proceed.
Aha! More suppressed memories! Doherty went from remembering hearing something “third or fourth hand” about “blanketly challenging” on November 18, to receiving a specific text message from John Hutchison on Election Day about DeSanctis talking to a provisional voter. Note that apparently none of the poll workers saw this behavior even though they were right there. And why would Hutchison text the Mayor about it instead of telling the poll workers who were, I guess according to Hutchison, asleep at the table? Isn’t it their job to enforce the election laws? The Mayor, who was a candidate, is not supposed to be in charge of the polls.
So Hutchison doesn’t tell the poll workers or the Municipal Clerk, he tells the Mayor who has nothing to do with monitoring elections. The Mayor doesn’t tell the poll workers or the Municipal Clerk, he tells the Borough Administrator, who has nothing to do with monitoring elections. The Borough Administrator doesn’t tell the poll workers or the Municipal Clerk, she tells the Borough Attorney, who has nothing to do with monitoring elections. The whole thing makes no sense.
By the way, DeSanctis has stated that she only worked as a challenger from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM and wasn’t even in the building when Hutchison allegedly saw her and confronted her. She says that when she returned to the polls in the afternoon to resume challenging she was immediately escorted out of the polling area by the police.
And what about “threatening to call a judge”? Who saw that?
Further in the story is the county’s denial that anyone had a conversation with Colleen Connelly:
..…………But county spokeswoman Laura Kirkpatrick said there was no record of anyone at the Board of Elections communicating with the deputy attorney generals or with Connolly about the incident.
According to Kirkpatrick, the only record they have regarding the incident was a phone call made from DuPont, who was told to give the Board of Election’s phone number to DeSanctis.
Connolly maintains that she had the proper authorization to remove DeSanctis.
“I’m very frustrated by the fact that they (the board of elections) don’t seem to have kept good records from that day. We did everything we were supposed to do. We had an erratic challenger,” she said…………
One reform I would like to see in Belmar – and probably at all levels of government but we’ll start with Belmar – is to have the entire governing body sworn in under oath before every meeting starts. Maybe then our leaders won’t say things like “If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor”, “I heard about DeSanctis’ actions third or fourth hand” or “An attorney general told me to have her removed.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
12 Comments
It appears that Connolly was working at the polls on Election Day …. instead of working on grant & permit applications to fix the Lake Como flooding problems …. Politics, not People!
It seems perhaps the county board of elections is either not doing their job or are incompetent in doing it.
Me thinks Belmar is the worst in the state for this type of crazy behavior. The five families will be moving on to an secret location outside Belmar.
Having a combined number of over 20 years working for the Brd. of Elections any thing that was questionable was reported to Freehold not the Mayor or the Boro Clerk or Administrator and certainly not The Boro Attorney. Someone must have changed the laws but it must have happened after we took the class in October of 2013. If it did we would have been notified by the Board by mail before the election.
Therefore it didn’t happen. No law change that is. We could fill out a report or have the voter fill out a provisional ballot.
We would make a call and that would be that unless Freehold is no longer the Board of Election.
Came back to this planet to pick up a few things. Going back to APE world never to return again. Good Bye all
Ms. DeSanctis should follow through with a complaint. Easy investigation, pull everyone’s phone records. If Hutchinson really did text the mayor then it will be there. If Colleen did call and speak to someone, it will be there. If any part of the chain of events do not match what is in the phone/text records- case closed.
blah, blah, blah
As far as this whole episode goes, the only word that does justice to this is ~SNAFU~
You can’t handle the truth !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ms. Desanctis certainly has a cause of action against Ms. Connolly and the Boro especially in view of the porta potty matter etc. A lawsuit for harassment might get peoples attention and stop this “acting stupidly” as our POTUS once said.
THIS SOUNDS LIKE A CIRCULAR ARGUMENT. KIRKPATRICK IN FREEHOLD ACKNOWLEDGES ONLY A CALL FROM MR DU PONT, NO ONE ELSE IN THE BORO, AND THERE IS NO REFERENCE TO ANY COMMENT FROM MR DU PONT. PERHAPS HE WILL OFFER SOME CLARITY IF ASKED.IT MIGHT FORESTALL A CIVIL SUIT BY DESANCTIS AGAINST ALL THE PERSONS INVOLVED AND,MORE IMPORTANTLY, AGAINST THE BORO.
we do not have to worry about law suits FEMA is going to pay.
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