TRENTON — A "hand-to-eye" count of ballots in a runoff election that was won by a single vote was not unexpected by the winner who hopes this will put the troubled 2022 general election in the rearview mirror.

After an Election Day vote was overshadowed by problems with Mercer County voting machines, a judge ordered a runoff election in Trenton's North Ward between Democrat Algernon Ward and Republican Jennifer Williams. Despite Ward filing for a recount after the election was certified, Williams was sworn into office.

NJ Globe first reported that Superior Court Judge William Anklowitz ordered a "hand-to-eye" recount of the runoff, which will start on Friday.

Mercer County Superintendent of Elections Nathaniel Walker told New Jersey 101.5 the recount will start at 9 a.m. Friday at the Superintendent of Elections warehouse in Hamilton. It will continue Saturday at the Board of Elections office in Lawrenceville.

"We did expect that to occur it being as close as it is and we're looking forward to hopefully putting this issue to rest on Saturday, maintaining our lead, and continually serving the residents of the North Ward and the rest of the city," Williams told New Jersey 101.5.

The candidates and members of the Board of Elections will be allowed to look at the ballots, the registry books, examine the machines and their repair records and other parts of the voting process before or after the count. They may also observe the recount.

GOP candidate Jennifer Williams
GOP candidate Jennifer Williams (Jennifer Williams for Assembly 2019 via Facebook)
loading...

Solving Mercer County's voting issues

Williams is the first transgender person to be elected to Trenton City Council. She believes the recount will be the first step in restoring confidence in Mercer County's voting process.

"I think we really need to have a serious conversation about how elections are being conducted in the future and make sure that there are redundancies already ahead of time," Williams said. "We also want to make sure that there's full transparency and that the voters and our county and across the state can be confident that when elections occur that it's a good clean election so we don't have a lot of crazy conspiracy theories. We need to stop that."

Williams has enjoyed her first 11 days on the City Council and said her first two meetings have been "quick and efficient" with none of the rancor that came to define the previous council.

"I think people were very, very much glad to see that there's no yelling, there's no screaming. There's no nasty comments towards anyone. And we're getting the people's business done," Williams said.

Four of the seven seats on the city council are filled, which is enough to make a quorum. A runoff election on Jan. 24 between the at-large candidates will fill the remaining seats.

Dan Alexander is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.

NJ mayors who make 6-figure salaries

As of 2023, there are at least a dozen full-time mayors around New Jersey making six-figure salaries for their positions.

Newark, Woodbridge and Elizabeth have helped lead the pack. Jersey City, Paterson, Edison and Wayne more recently adjusted their pay for the elected post.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

50 Most Popular Chain Restaurants in America

YouGov investigated the most popular dining brands in the country, and Stacker compiled the list to give readers context on the findings. Read on to look through America's vast and divergent variety of restaurants—maybe you'll even find a favorite or two.

More From 94.3 The Point