ORANGE, NJ — In the November 2016 election a majority of voters, including Orange City Council President Donna K. Williams, approved the city’s switch from having a board of education composed of mayoral appointees to elected stakeholders.
According to the Essex County Clerk’s Office, 3,899 Orange voters, or almost 77 percent of the 5,077 people who voted, approved Public Question No. 1 to change from an appointed board to an elected board, with 1,178 residents voting to maintain the status quo. With almost 15,000 registered voters in Orange, this demonstrates how small turnouts can have major consequences in elections.
Williams and voters who cast their ballots in favor of the change were anticipating going to the polls in the statewide general election on Tuesday, Nov. 10, to vote for an elected board for the first time in Orange’s history. However, on Tuesday, Jan. 10, the current Orange Board of Education — composed of appointees by Mayor Dwayne Warren — held a special vote to move the election to March 14.
“Hello Orange residents; it has just come to my attention that the current school board has made a decision to hold the March 14 special election polling hours from 1 to 8 p.m., as opposed to 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.,” Williams wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday, Jan. 10, the same night the current board members met and voted to change the special election times. “There is a school board meeting tonight, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m. Please come out and voice your opinion.”
But Williams’ plea to Orange voters via Facebook fell on deaf ears; the school board went ahead and voted to approve the new time for the March 14 special election, which did not sit well with the council president and other education stakeholders in the city. Attempts to contact Orange Board of Education members and its president for comments were unsuccessful by press time this week.
The new voting date and time frame does not sit well with Williams.
“Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted,” Williams said in a Facebook post on Wednesday, Jan. 11. “When voting rates are some of the lowest among advanced democracies, we should make it easier, not harder, to vote. When trust in institutions is low, we should reduce the corrosive influence of money in our politics and insist on the principles of transparency and ethics in public service.”
West Ward Councilman Harold J. Johnson agreed with Williams and West Ward District Leader William Hathaway questioned whether the board would pay a price for changing the March election times.
According to Johnson on Tuesday, Jan. 10, “Everything in this town is footed by the taxpayers. So screw taxpayers out of a full day to vote. I take my hat off to council president. She is all about transparency.”
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