School Board President Unseated, 2 Incumbents Keep Cherry Hill Seats

CHERRY HILL, NJ — Incumbent Cherry Hill School Board president Benjamin Ovadia lost to challenger Kimberly Gallagher by more than 3,400 votes Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Camden County Board of Elections.

Cherry Hill has 46 of 48 precincts reporting on Wednesday morning.

Voters also chose three candidates for other school board seats: newcomer Adam Greenbaum (10,209 votes), incumbent Gina Winters (8,605 votes) and incumbent Joel Mayer (7,620 votes).

Gallagher said she was "very excited" to be elected, and said she wanted to thank the voters who came out and supported her. The seat is for an unexpired one-year term.

"I look forward to advocating for the students, the families and the community over the next year," said Gallagher in a statement to Patch. "I come to the board with hopes of improving communication and transparency through listening to diverse view points, more community outreach and being a better steward of the taxpayer’s money."

Camden County re-elected Democratic commissioners Edward T. McDonnell and Virginia Ruiz-Betterige, unofficial results show. Both secured more than 85,000 votes Tuesday night with 327 of 342 precincts reporting.

Camden County had 72,489 people vote in person and 65,818 vote by mail for this election, with 2,985 early votes counted as of Wednesday morning. That’s a turnout of 141,292 people, or roughly 36 percent of registered voters.

In the contest for New Jersey’s 1st Congressional district, 66 percent of Camden County voters chose sitting Democrat Donald W. Norcross over Republican Claire Gustafson, according to unofficial results. Norcross got 92,056 votes to Gustafson’s 42,597 according to the county BOE.