ORANGE, NJ — The special election to select two new members for the Orange Board of Education was delayed by a snowstorm on Tuesday, March 14, but the new election date, Tuesday, March 28, provides voters with a little more time to get to know the 19 candidates. A candidates forum is scheduled for Saturday, March 25, at 3 p.m. in First Shiloh Baptist Church, located at 424 Main St.
An informal event was hosted March 1 for all 19 candidates by Orange West Ward Councilman Harold Johnson at his home so they could introduce themselves to him and other members of the Orange Municipal Democratic Committee, prior to the original special election date.
“On Tuesday, the first round of elections are scheduled to fill the two school board seats that will expand the board from seven members to nine members,” said Johnson in an email sent to prospective Orange voters Sunday, March 12. “In November 2017, there will be another school board election. On that ballot, we replace two more expired seats that were appointed by the mayor. There will be yearly elections, until the school board completely transitions to all nine elected board members.”
Johnson said he listened to the certified school board candidates at the R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Orange forum at First Universalist Unitarian Church on Cleveland Street.
“I was impressed by everyone and their stated commitment to the school district and the children in Orange,” Johnson said.
Orange Municipal Democratic Committee Chairman and East Ward Councilman Kerry Coley said he is hoping for a good voter turnout for the city’s first-ever Board of Education election. He addes that the election hopefully it won’t be preempted again either by “an act of God” such as the snowstorm, or acts of man, such as the legal petitions opposing the election filed by the current appointed Orange Board of Education members and Mayor Dwayne Warren, who appointed them.
“Historically, just by the date of this election, it’s going to, more than likely, be a low voter turnout, so someone could possibly win this election just by one or two votes, because you have … 19 candidates that are going to be pulling from the few voters that do come out,” Coley said Saturday, March 18. “So by pushing this election back a few days, I think it was a blessing to the candidates to do a little bit more canvassing, campaigning and introducing themselves to likely voters to get the word out. So I think that, just for that reason alone, it will increase the number of voters that will turn out.”
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