BLOOMFIELD, NJ — In a tight race for the three open seats on the Bloomfield Board of Education, the current board president, Jill Fischman, has a commanding lead. Three other candidates — Dan Anderson, Emily Smith and Ben Morse — are back in the pack in a fight for the remaining two open seats. The rest of the contenders are way behind. And there are still more than 160 unopened ballots yet to be tallied. That could spill the apple cart any which way. At the earliest, the dust won’t finally settle until next week when the last of the unopened ballots are tabulated.
According to the office of the Essex County Clerk, as of Thursday, Nov. 7, the uncertified results are: Jill Fischman, 1,906 votes; Dan Anderson, 1,736; Emily Smith, 1,712; Ben Morse, 1,696; Lillian Mancheno, 1,344; Satenik Margaryan, 1,182; and Laura Izurieta, 851.
Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin has informed The Independent Press that 34 mail-in ballots will be counted Friday, Nov. 8, and 127 provisional ballots will be verified and counted Wednesday, Nov. 13. Fischman, Morse and Mancheno are incumbents; Anderson and Smith are former board members.
In a telephone interview, Fischman said she was very excited to be given the privilege of serving for three more years to help “the kids of Bloomfield.”
“We have a lot of things to take care of,” she said. “There’s the facilities, improvement to our curriculums, to have the best classes and, of course, to take care of our teachers.”
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