Politics & Government

Dems Successful in Write-in Campaign Despite Low Voter Turnout

Just 7.2 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday's primary.

Just 7.2 percent of registered voters came out Tuesday to cast their votes in the June 8 primary election.

The likely reason was there were no contested primaries this year for common council or mayor. However, two Democratic hopefuls who joined the race just six days ago, launched successful write-in campaigns. Eileen Forman Ludden received 56 votes for mayor and Andrew Dennis White received 41 votes for Ward 2 councilman.The number of write-in votes needed to appear on the ballot in the November general election is based on a percentage of votes cast for Members of the General Assembly in the 2009 primary. For Mayor, just 22 votes were needed; in ward 2, 12 votes were needed.

"With the addition of Eileen and Dennis to the ticket, the Summit Democrats are thrilled to present a full slate of four high quality candidates for this November's Election Day," said Paul Dillon, chair of the Summit Municipal Democratic Committee, via email Tuesday night.

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to unofficial results from the Union County Clerk 133 write-in votes were cast in total for mayor and 71 for Ward II. Stay tuned to Patch to find out who else received write-in votes.

But due to the lack of any contested races, voter turnout was low. Of the 13,408 registered voters in Summit, just 967, or 7.2 percent, cast ballots on Tuesday.

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

, the Republican nominee for mayor, received 441 votes; , the Republican nominee for Council At-Large, received 477 votes; and Susan Hairston, the Democratic nominee for Council At-large received 347 votes.

In Ward I, The Democratic candidate Sandy Bloom received 169 votes and , the Republican nominee, received 206 votes.

In Ward II, the Republican nominee received 247 votes.

"I think the GOP has a strong slate offering a mix of experience and new perspectives that should benefit Summit," said Chip Dickson, chair of the Summit Republican City Committee.


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