By MADDY VITALE
Mail-in ballots have been cast in the Ocean City 2020 municipal election. Tallying began Tuesday night, with priority given to the only contested City Council race out of four in the resort — the Third Ward.
And a day after the early numbers came in giving political newcomer Jody Levchuk, 43, a slight edge with 557 votes over incumbent Councilman Tony Wilson, 51, who garnered 547 votes, no winner has been declared yet.
Mail-in ballots had to be postmarked by Tuesday. However, votes may continue to come in and be counted over the next two days.
But just like Tuesday night, when Cape May County Clerk Rita Marie Fulginiti noted that it is still too early to formulate who might be the winner, it is anyone’s guess at this point.
“Both candidates are still in the game,” Fulginiti said.
In the unprecedented all-mail voting process amid the coronavirus pandemic, Fulginiti said she expects there will be an official winner announced on Friday.
She added, “They will be counted on Friday and then we will have the official count.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Fulginiti said that an additional 23 ballots came in and were going to be counted on Friday by the Cape May County Board of Elections.
In all, there are about 2,124 voters in the Third Ward. By close of business Tuesday, about half of the ward’s registered voters had cast their votes by mail.
On Tuesday night, Fulginiti said 3,078 votes were counted so far between the five candidates for the four wards.
Candidates who are running unopposed are incumbents First Ward Councilman Michael DeVlieger and Fourth Ward Councilman Bob Barr and newcomer Tom Rotondi, who is running for the Second Ward seat vacated in January by former Councilman Antwan McClellan, who was elected to the state Assembly.
At the end of the day on Tuesday, Barr was the highest vote-getter, receiving 719 votes, with DeVlieger garnering 673 votes and Rotondi at 394 votes. However, Fulginiti reiterated that any ballots that come in within the next 48 hours still need to be counted and that these tallies were unofficial.
To view the complete tally of votes so far, visit www.capemaycountyvotes.com.
