Prosecutor's Office Plans To Refer Voter Fraud Case To Attorney General

The 190 challenged vote-by-mail ballots that were referred to the Hudson County's Prosecutor's Office will likely be referred to the Attorney General's office, said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio. 

"We intend to discuss the matter with the Attorney General and ask them to review the manner," said DeFazio in a phone interview on Friday afternoon. "We just want another opinion."

The campaign of incumbent councilman Michael Lenz challenged 190 votes, based on residency issues and claims that people were paid to vote by mail. They also challenged the ballots of the 78 campaign workers for eventual winner Tim Occhipinti who were paid $40 and voted by mail a few days after receiving the cash. 

, when Councilman-at-Large and Lenz campaign legal counsel Ravi Bhalla and Stan Grossbard—Mayor Dawn Zimmer's husband—presented five affidavits alleging voter fraud to the Board of Elections. 

The Board of Elections discarded 99 out of more than 500 vote-by-mail ballots, based on insufficient signature matches and other missing information. 

The decision to refer the matter was first reported by the Hoboken Reporter on Friday afternoon. 

Bhalla said on Friday afternoon he was happy to hear the development. 

"I think this is a positive development," Bhalla said. "This is a strong indication that the matter is being taken seriously."

Occhipinti unseated former Fourth Ward Councilman Lenz during November's special election. Although Occhipinti received 50 more votes on the ward's voting machines than did Lenz, he received 390 vote-by-mail ballots in comparison with Lenz's 34. 

Occhipinti spokesman David Cruz said he has confidence in the process and that Occhipinti is focusing on being councilman.

"This is the process they're going through," said Cruz. "As far as we're concerned, the elections are over."

Councilman Occhipinti could not be reached before publishing this article.

Bhalla said that the Attorney General's office is best equipped to discuss matters like these.

DeFazio could not say anything about the timeline of the review, but said "we do plan to forward it do the Attorney General's office shortly." DeFazio could not get into specifics about the case and added that proving criminality beyond reasonable doubt in elections is very difficult. But, DeFazio said the manner would "be scrutinized and discussed."