NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Polls closed at 9pm tonight after a chilly and memorable special school board election.
As we reported earlier, five candidates faced off today for the two open seats. Â They are the first two seats on the board to be elected offices. Â Previously, the city’s mayor appointed the entire board.
In a landslide, the two candidates who were supported by the political establishment won decisive victories over their opponents.
Ronald Hush won with 515 votes, including mail-in ballots already processed by the county. Â Jerry Mercado came in second with 211 votes, and Martin Arocho came in last with 110 votes.
Diana Fajardo won her race with 520 votes total, besting her only active opponent Cedrick Goodman, who earned 226 votes. Â Antonio Finney, who dropped out of the race to support Goodman, still earned 28 votes because he did not withdraw his name from the ballot on time.
Here are the unofficial results, sorted by most popular polling place:
 | TWO-YEAR TERM | ONE-YEAR TERM | ||||
Polling Place |
RONALD HUSH |
MARTIN AROCHO |
JERRY MERCADO |
CEDRICK GOODMAN |
ANTONIO FINNEY |
DIANA FAJARDO |
Woodrow Wilson School | 85 | 6 | 33 | 9 | 7 | 89 |
Lord Stirling School | 79 | 9 | 33 | 28 | 5 | 69 |
St. Mary’s | 58 | 19 | 42 | 45 | 4 | 69 |
Board of Education HQ | 44 | 23 | 17 | 23 | 0 | 49 |
Senior Citizen Center | 57 | 4 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 62 |
Rutgers Labor Ed Center | 35 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 37 |
NB Middle School | 18 | 15 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 17 |
Lincoln School | 14 | 6 | 14 | 13 | 0 | 18 |
Providence Square | 23 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 16 |
Dept. of Public Works | 9 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 0 | 6 |
Hungarian Heritage Center | 14 | 7 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 12 |
First Reformed Church | 10 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 13 |
Schwarz-Robeson | 10 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 8 |
RooseveltElementarySchool | 7 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 5 |
Election Day Total |
463 | 110 | 203 | 217 | 28 | 470 |
Preliminary Mail-In Votes | 52 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 50 |
TOTAL (%) |
515 (61.6%) |
110 (13.2%) |
211 (25.2%) |
226 (29.2%) |
28 (3.6%) |
520 (67.1%) |
Â
District-by-district totals were not available and will never be because most voting machines served several districts.
Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.