After a close election and a recount, the battle for two Englewood Cliff council seats ended with a flourish of verbal fireworks Tuesday when a Bergen County judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by two ousted Democratic incumbents.
RECORD FILE PHOTOS
GOP Councilmen Zhi “Philip” Liang, left, and Nunzio Consalvo were sworn in on Jan. 7.
Superior Court Judge Robert C. Wilson ruled that the Democrats had failed to make a case for overturning their defeat in the Nov. 5 election during five days of testimony in which six people including three Republican Party officials had invoked their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
Wilson had disqualified the ballots of about 11 voters, including one for the Democrats, during the weeklong hearing, far short of the 37 votes needed to reverse the outcome of even the closer of the two council races won by Republican challengers.
When the lawyer for the Democrats asked for two more weeks to again serve subpoenas on 39 voters who had failed to show in court, Wilson denied the request.
That led Joseph Tripodi, the attorney for GOP Councilmen Nunzio Consalvo and Zhi “Philip” Liang to ask the judge to dismiss the case.
Attorney Edward Florio, representing Democrats Melanie Simon and Nora Seoane-Jobson, countered by asking the judge to order a new election.
He accused a “cabal of Republican operatives” with running a mail-in ballot operation that swung the election to their candidates.
Florio said he could not remember an elections case where so many witnesses had invoked their constitutional right not to incriminate themselves.
“It brings the odor of fraud and malconduct to such a degree that it permeates every fiber of this process,” Florio said.
That drew a furious response from Tripodi, who said there was no such evidence presented. The votes that were invalidated were tossed on technical grounds, not because of any evidence of fraud, he said.
Tripodi called the lawsuit an “outrageous” attempt to intimidate Republican voters and keep them from casting ballots in future elections.
“What are the voters supposed to do?” Tripodi asked. “Because if we have to do this people are never going to vote again.”
In ruling from the bench, Wilson criticized what he described as the fine print and contradictory legal language that election officials had placed on the mail-in ballot and application.
“It’s embarrassing that the government could create such a system to disenfranchise people,” Wilson said.
During the hearing, Wilson also criticized Democrats for using a convicted felon, former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, to go door-to-door interviewing voters. McCann served time in prison on a bank fraud charge.
Florio later objected to McCann’s past being raised as an issue, noting that his conviction was more than 10 years ago.
“He’s paid his debt to society,” Florio said.
After the hearing, Florio said he disagreed with the judge’s decision.
“We still believe that the integrity of the election was impugned by a cabal of operatives who hid behind the Fifth Amendment,” Florio said.
But Brent Pohlman, a lawyer for Carrol McMorrow, chairwoman of the Englewood Cliffs Republicans, said the Democrats failed to offer any proof of their allegations.
“In attempting to disenfranchise legitimate voters and to baselessly tarnish the local Republican Party, the losing Council candidates dragged many of their neighbors and former constituents into court and forced them to defend their right to vote,” Pohlman said in a prepared statement.
Simon said the Democrats intend to continue challenging the disputed election and appeal the judge’s decision.
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