Paterson Wins Seat on Board of Ed After Losing Council Race

In a surprising twist, Bruce Paterson, the write-in candidate who lost Tuesday's Garwood Council race, has won a seat via write-in to Garwood's Board of Education election. Paterson, however, has declined the win.

"Although it is an honor to win by write-in votes the one open BOE seat this election cycle, I have a feeling it was more by accident, since I was running my write-in campaign for the Garwood council seat," Paterson wrote in a statement to Patch. "It would certainly be a pleasure to interact with the sitting BOE members as I know them all very well."

Only two incumbent candidates (Brendan McDermott and Susan Gronig) were on the ballot for three seats in the Board of Ed race, and Paterson received nine write-in votes, according to Borough Administrator Christina Ariemma. 

"School board seats with no nominees, need only a single write-in vote to win the position," said Ariemma.  

If the person elected does not wish to serve, the most recent available opinion from election officials is that there has been an absence of candidates and the county superintendent appoints. It does not go to the next highest vote getter, explained Ariemma.

There were two candidates who received more than one or two votes: Salvatore Piarulli received six, Kathleen Murphy received five and David Murphy received three. 

"I understand there were two others with a high but less vote count than mine who may actually have strived to be elected, and as such I would defer to one of them since they had the desire and motivation for that BOE seat," Paterson said. "I hope the BOE recommends those two candidate's names to the county superintendent in consideration to fill the open seat."