John Curley

The Superintendent of Elections has determined that there are 3,793 provisional ballots pertaining to the Monmouth County Freeholders’ race that the Board of Elections will assess next week, beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 17.

Right now, Democratic candidate Amy Mallet leads Republican candidate John Curley by 18 votes, 135,688 to 135,670, according to the County Clerk’s Office.

FREEHOLD - A Deputy Attorney General is in the Monmouth County Clerk's Office observing as Superintendent of Elections workers at 5 p.m. again began tallying provisional ballots.

Democratic Party representive Michael Mangan and Republican Party representative Rosanne Scotti also stand in the room with the attorney general's office representive and the elections workers.

"All of the material they inventory will go to the Board of Elections where two Republicans and two Democrats will count all of the provisional ballots," said County Clerk Claire French. 

The process could take up to two weeks, according to French.

FREEHOLD – A squat drab building on the side of a highway could describe a lot of places in New Jersey, but this one warrants a double take because a state trooper stands out front, and operatives come and go, frantically talking on their cellphones in the rain.

It’s two days after Election Day, but there remains a political war going on in Monmouth and here at the Clerk’s Office on Halls-Mill Road represents ground zero.

In a fight to secure a second seat on the Freeholder Board, Democratic candidate Amy Mallet leads Republican candidate John Curley by 18 votes, 135,688 to 135,670 as representatives from both parties jockey in the background for position in case a legal challenge goes down.

With 98% of the vote counted in the race for control of the Monmouth County Board of Freehodlers, Republicans Lillian Burry and John Curley lead Democrats Amy Mallet and Glenn Mason.  Republicans have a 3-2 majority, and Democrats need to win one seat to win a majority.  

Vote totals: Burry (125,569), Curley (125,193), Mallet (122,949) and Mason (116,386).

In the contentious race for two seats on the Monmouth County Freeholder Board, the Democrats have mostly trained their sights on incumbent Republican Freeholder Director Lillian Burry, but today they went after her running mate, former Red Bank Councilman John Curley.

The mailer Democrats sent to voters accuses the former Republican councilman of dereliction of duty in his post on the council, which, Democrats said, eventually sparked the rest of the governing body to fire him.

As chairman of the local finance committee, “he failed to supervise the chief financial officer, causing overspending of $400,000,” reads the flyer, which also charges  that Curley voted to increase property taxes during each of his years in office.

Freeholder Barbara McMorrow, left, stands with fellow Democrats, candidates Amy Mallet and Glen Mason.

In Monmouth County, registered Democrats now lead Republicans by 10,000 voters, according to the County Board of Elections’ registration report, which positions the shore county once again for a likely battle come November.

And finally it’s a battle at the county level, where gleeful Democrats see an opportunity to gain control of this traditionally GOP stronghold.

But while the Democrats want to use those Board of Elections numbers to trampoline their pair of Freeholder candidates onto the board to at last seize the majority, GOP leadership feels confident that a John McCain presidential candidacy will play to their party’s root strength here.

"Obviously a vast majority of voters are overwhelmingly unaffiliated in a county that leans Republican," said state Sen. Sean Kean (R-Monmouth), a longtime McCain supporter.