Eight Write-In Votes Cast in Westfield Primary

Eight write-in votes were cast during last week's primary in Westfield, according to records in the town clerk's office.

The low turnout primary with few contested races drew few write-in votes. Write-ins are traditionally low when no candidates run organized campaigns when they are not on the ballot.

The race for the Republican nomination for governor gathered the most write-ins with two. One ballot was cast for Sept. 11 conspiracy theorist Jeff Boss, who was seeking the Democratic nomination for the state's chief executive spot. The other was for the letter "M." Officials in the clerk's office said it's not uncommon to receive at least one joke write-in, usually for a fictional character. It is not known if this write-in was for the letter or the James Bond character.

In the Democratic primary for governor one write-in was cast in the second ward for Stephen Schoeman.

Mayor Andy Skibitsky may have been unchallenged officially in the Republican primary for reelection, but he did not receive every vote. One write-in was cast in his primary for Bruce Jester. No write-ins were cast in the Democratic primary.

In the GOP primary for Assembly one write-in vote was cast for J. Gallagher against victorious Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, R-Westfield, and Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, R-Summit. For the county's new Republican state committeewoman, Susan Sullivan received one write-in vote in the third ward against the unopposed winner, former Garwood Councilwoman Pat Quattrocchi.

While races for Democratic county committee seats are normally routine unopposed affairs, the race for committeeman in ward two, district one, featured one write-in for Martin Sheahy against Michael Feldman who won with 10 votes.

And retiring Councilman Sal Caruana still has one fan in ward one. Caruana received one write-in vote to be the county's new Republican state committeeman against Councilman Jim Foerst who won the seat.

"I would like to thank whomever voted for me," Caruana said, noting that he did not write his own name in for the post.