While there will be two Council runoff elections in Bayonne for Second and Third Ward Council seats next month, there will be no drama.
On Wednesday, May 20, Bayonne City Clerk Madelene Medina held a drawing for ballot positions for the Bayonne Municipal Council Runoff Elections, which will take place on Tuesday, June 9, in the Second and Third Wards. She conducted the drawing in the City Council Chambers. A representative of Royal Printing, the company that prints the ballots, assisted Clerk Medina at the event. The runoff elections are required by law, because no candidate in either the Second or Third Ward received 50% of the vote plus one in the first round of municipal elections that took place on Tuesday, May 12.
To conduct the drawing, Royal Printing prepared printed slips of paper with each candidate’s name and placed all of the slips in envelopes for each office.
In the case of the Second Ward, the only name that needed to be drawn was Melissa Godesky Rodriguez, who finished first, but short of a majority, on May 12. Normally, the candidate who finished second would participate in the runoff. However, both the second- and third-place candidates from the election on May 12, Omar Elgarhi and Salvatore Gullace, declined to participate as the second candidate in the runoff.
In the case of the Third Ward, the only name that needed to be drawn was Tommy Gillen, who finished first, but short of a majority on May 12. The second-place finisher on May 12, Gary LaPelusa, Sr. submitted a letter stating his wish to withdraw from the runoff, followed by withdrawals from the second spot in the runoff by the other candidates from May 12, John Milan Sebik and Patrick Devaney, Sr.
The ballot positions drawn were as follows:
Second Ward: Melissa Godesky Rodriguez- 1A.
Third Ward: Tommy Gillen-3A.
The runoffs would have the legal effect of ratifying the election of the leading candidate in both the Second Ward and the Third Ward.
No write-in votes are allowed in runoff elections.