OLD TAPPAN, N.J.—While each write-in candidate for Old Tappan’s seat on the Northern Valley Regional District Board of Education picked up three additional machine votes in the recount held Dec. 2, Kathy Fable added an extra mail-in vote to her total to defeat Sheila Maier 170 votes to 169 votes.
Fable was officially sworn in Dec. 3 by Northern Valley Regional board attorney John Schettino to finish out an unexpired 25-month term.
Fable told Northern Valley Press that due to her seven years of attending board meetings, including a 2013-2105 stint on the board, she said she looks forward “to a meaningful role to help the district and taxpayers.”
Fable said a priority will be to get the board to “stop wasting legal fees” in opposing citizen public records requests.
She said the board “wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars” in trying to prevent public access to important documents and information that citizens should be able to get without multiple requests.
“I will really work hard for the people of Old Tappan on the board,” said Fable.
Sabrina Taranto, a county Elections DIvision supervisor, said the tie-breaking vote was fully legible and spelled out for Fable but placed on the wrong line of a mail-in ballot.
She said all six Board of Elections commissioners evaluating the ballot said “based on voter intent that should count” for Fable.
“I’m very well ingrained into what the board is about and how it operates,” Fable said, noting she’s only missed a couple meetings in nearly seven years.
Efforts to reach Maier or her attorney for comment were not returned by press time. It was unclear whether Maier would challenge the recount results.