14 Votes Separate Candidate and Council Seat

A close Madison Borough Council race could come down to provisional ballots.

Republican candidate Patrick Rowe's lead over Democratic candidate Maureen Byrne narrows to 14 votes when mail-in ballots are added to the preliminary tallies released Tuesday night.

Twenty-six provisional Madison ballots still were being processed and have not yet been counted, according to the Morris County Superintendent of Elections. They might not be counted until Tuesday.

Counting mail-in votes, Rowe has 2,089 votes while Byrne has 2,075 votes.

Before including the mail-in ballot figures, which were provided by the Morris County Clerk's Office Wednesday, Rowe's lead was 45 votes.

Rowe, the Board of Education vice president, ran with incumbent Councilman Robert Catalanello, who apparently won re-election to one of the two seats up for vote.

Byrne, a four-year member of the Downtown Development Commission, ran with Jeffrey Gertler, an 11-year member of the Planning Board and six-year member of the Environmental Commission.

All four candidates received more than 2,000 votes.

Former Councilman Sam Cerciello also appeared on the ballot as an independent and received more than 400 votes.

David Luber of the Madison Democratic Committee said Wednesday nobody is conceding until the final vote count is determined. He believes Catalanello secured one of the Borough Council seats, but sees the other as up in the air.

Catalanello said Tuesday night he was waiting for the results to be certified.

"Hopefully, if the results hold up, we'll get to come to Council next year," he said of the Republican ticket.

Unofficial results from the Morris County Election Results website with the addition of mail-in ballot totals

DEM - Maureen M. Byrne 1,946 votes + 129 mail-in votes = 2,075

DEM - Jeffrey J. Gertler 1,896 votes + 122 mail-in votes = 2,018

REP - Patrick W. Rowe 1,991 votes + 98 mail-in votes = 2,089

REP - Robert G. Catalanello 2,041 votes + 94 mail-in votes = 2,135

IND - Sebastian "Sam" Cerciello 361 votes + 57 mail-in votes = 418