The results of the school board race in Princeton won’t be official until provisional ballots are counted by Mercer County officials later this week.
In Princeton, 223 residents voted at the polls using provisional ballots on Tuesday. A voter casts a provisional ballot when there is an issue at the polls, for example when the voter is not listed in the records for a particular district, or when the voter is listed as a vote-by-mail voter. Some voters whose mail-in ballots were disqualified in the general election last year because their addresses could not be seen in the ballot envelope window voted both by mail and via provisional ballot this election to make sure their votes would be counted.
School Board Vice President Gregory Stankiewicz trails incumbent Deb Bronfeld in the school board race by 113 votes. It is extremely unlikely that Stankiewicz would be able to win enough votes to pull ahead of Bronfeld. Some provisional ballots will be thrown out, including those of the voters who also voted by mail. Stankiewicz would need to make up for his 113-vote deficit, plus the number of votes Bronfeld receives from the provisional vote tallies.
The provisional ballots are expected to be counted on Friday.
Seems like an unusually high number of provisional ballots!
It could be because of the new state law that once you vote by absentee ballot, you are on the list for voting by mail for the next election. If you show up to vote in person, your ballot is provisional.