Ewing clerk: Bert Steinmann to face Jack Ball in

mayor race
Thursday, June 10, 2010

By JOAN GALLER
Staff Writer

EWING — According to Township Clerk Stephen Elliott, Councilman Bert Steinmann won the Democratic
primary race for mayor over his Democratic challenger, Council President Les Summiel, by a vote of 957 to
928, including absentee ballots.

Elliott said he delivered 13 provisional votes late Tuesday to Mercer County officials, who will make the
election results official today.

“There’s no way those 13 votes can change the outcome in (Summiel’s) favor,” Elliott added yesterday.

Not so fast, countered Summiel, who counts “62 phantom votes” from two sets of election results produced
Tuesday, and he won’t concede defeat until the county certifies all the votes he received, a process he
expects to be completed today.

“The county website showed 956 for Steinmann and 928 votes for me, a 28-vote difference,” Summiel said.
“My representatives got a sheet from the township clerk’s office showing Bert got 921 votes and I got 201.

“And the county says there are over 100 ballots they are opening today,” Summiel added. “So, I’m still
waiting.”

Elliott seized the opportunity yesterday to defend his actions in answer to local Republicans’ charges that he
closed his office without providing GOP totals from Ewing’s 32 voting districts to Ewing GOP Chairman Jeff
Prunetti. “I have a statutory obligation to get the provisional ballots to the county immediately, so that’s why I
left,” Elliott said.

The GOP team, which ran unchallenged, included Mayor Jack Ball getting 535 votes, Councilman Donald
Cox with 519 and Judith Peoples 518.

An angry Democratic Council President Joe Murphy weighed in on the election controversy last night,
asserting that Prunetti had demanded the vote totals before Elliott and his two aides had finished tabulating
the results.

According to Murphy, Prunetti was told by Elliott that he could wait for the results, get them off the county
website or call Elliott yesterday.

Murphy also blasted Jack Ball for complaining to The Trentoninan that his people were not able to get the
election results from Elliott.

“Mayor Huff-and-Puff called me (at home on election night) and said ‘it wasn’t right, we sent Prunetti for our
results and he came back without them’,” Murphy said.

“Jack Ball’s trying to create an issue that is not there,” Murphy declared.

Murphy said Elliott’s aides “ stopped their work and did the numbers for Prunetti for the congressional races,
which he wanted.”

Prunetti says he showed up at Elliott’s office around 8 p.m. and waited with Summiel’s people for 45
minutes, when Elliott came out with only the Democrats’ totals, nothing for the Republicans.

Prunetti said he finally settled for the congressional numbers, notably GOP Scott Sipprelle’s successful run
for a District 12 seat.

“We Republican are united and going forward to do great things for Ewing,” he said.