Aufseeser by a hair Buccellato considers recount, says voting machines were faulty BY KAREN E. BOWES Staff Writer While Mayor Mary Aufseeser may lead the Matawan mayoral election by a single vote; Councilman Paul Buccellato isn't giving up without a fight. Mary Aufseeser On Monday, Buccellato said he is considering a recount because of reports of faulty ballot machines in the 4th district. "Numerous residents called me and friends called me saying they had difficulty in the polling places at District 4," Buccellato said on Monday. He added, "The machines, I don't want to say went frozen, but they went down, so there was some difficulty there. At the end of the night, the machine went down when they were trying to extract the numbers." At press time, Republican Buccellato trailed 946 votes to Democrat Aufseeser's 947. With nine write-ins, a total of 1,902 votes were counted, according to the Monmouth County Clerk's Web site. The difference in percentages is 49.74 percent to 49.79 percent. On Election Day, Aufseeser led by 11 votes. By Friday, with absentee and provisional votes tallied, the mayor's lead was down to one. Paul Buccellato Buccellato stopped short of promising a recount but said he was seriously considering it. "We're going to look into it," Buccellato said. "We'll get some more information tomorrow and consider submitted papers for a full recount." In the meantime, the councilman said he is discussing the issue with election law experts. "I think it's something that has to be looked at very carefully," Buccellato said. Meanwhile, Aufseeser said she is not nervous. "Why would I be nervous?" she replied when asked on Monday afternoon. "As far as I know it's the official count," Aufseeser said, adding that she received a telephone call from the borough attorney on Friday announcing her win. "Whether Mr. Buccellato intends to request a recount, I'm not aware of that," Aufseeser added. Buccellato has until this Friday to submit papers to the county requesting a recount. If he chooses this route, he will have to finance the costly process himself. Unaware of exactly how much a recount costs, Buccellato guessed it was somewhere between $50 and $100 per voting machine. There are approximately 14 voting machines in the borough, according to Buccellato. If he loses the recount, Buccellato will no longer be a serving member of the council. His term is up this Jan. 1 and he chose to run for mayor instead of for reelection. Republican Linda Clifton ran in Buccellato's place, winning a place on the council with 949 votes. Republican running mate and senior council member Debra Buragina was ousted by just 11 votes with 922 ballots, making room for Democrat Kevin Mendes with 933. Also running was Democrat Robert Bunyon who earned 917. A total of 3,721 votes were cast in the council election. Clifton said her first-term priority is the future of the train station. The political newcomer said she supports a mixed-use development of the train station area and is looking forward to working with the rest of the council on the project. She also expressed interest in using the downtown revitalization study as a guide to improve the downtown. "My big thing has always been the downtown and I would like to use the plan to bring the middle of town into a more productive state by using the points of that plan," Clifton said. Mendes is also excited to enter his first term. As the owner of Key Auto Body, a business close to the train station, Mendes said he is very concerned for the residents and business owners in that area. He noted that the stalled transit village project has been a hindrance to those attempting to sell or improve their property. "The Matawan people pay a dear price for that train station being there," Mendes said, noting that as a result the roads are "being ripped up." "The Matawan train station these days is not a blessing but it could be a blessing," Mendes added. The newly elected Democrat expressed a creative approach to improving Matawan's reputation: establishing a school-based tour of the Burrows Mansion and creating a transportation museum at the old historic train station building. Mendes said he would try to accomplish this by applying for grants and working with the county Freeholders and NJ Transit.