April 4, 2010 (Kearny, NJ) Who would have known that a poll on "Who's Your First Pick for Kearny Board of Education?" would have generated such a response from our readers. Ironically, KOTW's prior polls have generated as much interest as school board elections: almost none. This year however it appears that the school board election will be generating a lot more voter participation than usual. If our Kearny Board of Education poll is an indicator, a lot is at stake in April 20th's Kearny School Board Election.

Accusations are flying about how Bernadette McDonald got a flurry of votes on Easter Sunday to pull out a victory in our poll. What matters is not our unscientific poll but how many registered voters are motivated to come out and cast a vote. The Superintendent of Election voting machines are not as easily bypassed as KOTW's mechanism for trying to limit individuals from voting one time per day. It does give you some food for thought about how the old mechanical voting machines were much harder to tamper with than the modern computer versions. Although McDonald supporters obviously find a way to bypass our "one vote a day" system, McDonald supporters may not have been the only ones to put in a couple extra votes for their favorite candidate. This is Hudson County after all. As former Governor Brendan Byrne joked that he wanted to be buried in Hudson County so he could vote when he was dead.



The final poll results are as follows: Bernadettle McDonald 729 votes (36.9%), John Munro 641 votes (32.4), Bob O'Malley 331 (16.7%), George King 228 (11.5%), Alan Doffont 31 (1.6%) and Joe Sgalia 17 (.9%).

There were 1977 votes cast. The participation level was tremendous. KOTW hopes that our open discussion of the issues surrounding the Kearny Board of Education has spurred interest from registered voters who will go out and participate in the election. Our latest poll is "Are you in favor of Kearny Board of Education Budget?" Join the Discussion on our Discussion Board. It has seen increased readership in the past few weeks. Our policy of allowing an open discussion is trying at times but has resulted in the past in passionate discussions of issues effecting our community.