Independents for Education Slate Sweeps BoE Elections

The full Independents for Education slate has swept

Numbers released by the Hoboken City Clerk's Office and the Hudson County Board of Elections show that Independents for Election candidates finished first, second and third in the voting for three open slots on the Board of Education. Carmelo Garcia came in first, with 2,287 votes, followed by Frances Rhodes Kearns with 1,973, and Peter Biancamano, with 1,990.

The school budget was approved, with 1,321 people voting "yes" and 641 people voting "no."

The vast majority of the roughly 600 vote-by-mail ballots went to the Independents for Education slate. Garcia got 411, Kearns won 405 and Biancamano got 403 vote-by-mail ballots. In the vote by mail ballots, 125 people voted "yes" on the budget, while 49 voted "no."

On the voting machines, the Kids First candidates Cliff Godfrey got 1,271 votes, Jean Marie Mitchell won 1,303 votes and Steven Feinstein got 1,195 votes.

With the vote-by-mail ballots, Kids First candidate Godfrey got 48, Mitchell 47 and Feinstein got 36. Independent candidate Patricia Waiters got 257 votes on the machines and 20 vote-by-mail ballots.

Despite their slate's loss in Wednesday's vote, Kids First retains a majority on the school board.