MORRIS COUNTY — The DeGroot campaign formally objected to the candidacies of Robert Snyder for Commissioner and Andrew Agliata for County Clerk. “Our campaign is aware that their petitions were improperly circulated and notarized. This was confirmed by eyewitness testimony and video evidence,” said a spokesperson for the DeGroot Campaign.
Eyewitness testimony and video evidence of the petition signers confirmed that the circulator was not present when Republican voters signed the petitions for Snyder and Agliatta. It was circulated instead by a woman who was identified as an Executive Board Member of the Morris County Republican Committee and a Montville School Board Member, also an elected Morris County Committee Woman. The Morris County Republican Committee had previously chosen their “Line” candidate for Commissioner Tyfun Selen.
DeGroot stated, “This shady scheme of collecting signatures for these two “last day to file” candidates was solely to create confusion among Republicans and to hurt DeGroot’s campaign by pushing his bracket further off the ballot and diluting DeGroot’s chances for victory. Make no mistake, shady things are going on, and schemes were hatched to protect Selen and the Line.”
“This woman did not identify the candidates she was collecting signatures for and misled the signers as to who they were signing for. One signer stated that this woman requested they sign the petition twice but did not inform them that it was for two candidates. Further, this woman did not sign the petition as the circulator; however, a young man did sign the petition under oath, knowing he was not the circulator.”
“Paul DeGroot is supported by the real Republican voters of Morris County, who will not fall for the establishment’s last-minute ballot-fixing schemes for their gain.”
“Collusion with phantom candidates to manipulate the ballot is a shocking and grave threat to voter integrity and a dirty trick. The Republican Party has long opposed the Democrat’s careless election schemes. We cannot allow fraudulent petitions and back-door deals to manipulate the ballot in our own Party. We must do better.”
“As a former Chief Assistant Prosecutor of the Public Integrity Section, his unit sought out and prosecuted corruption. When elected to the Board of County Commissioners, DeGroot will be a breath of fresh air and shine a bright light to expose backroom deals and prevent things like this from happening,” stated DeGroot.
Last week, a slate of off-the-line candidates running in the Republican primary received Column 1 after the deputy county clerk Anna McMahon conducted a ballot draw. Column 1 is headed by Paul DeGroot, a former Passaic County Prosecutor, and 2022 Congressional candidate now seeking a county commissioner seat.
That placed Tom Mastrangelo (R-Montville), a county commissioner seeking the GOP nomination for State Senate, at the top of the ticket in Morris County. Mastrangelo is joined in Column 1 by BettyLou DeCroce (R-Parsippany), who seeks to regain the Assembly seat she lost two years ago, and another Assembly candidate, former Parsippany Councilman Robert Peluso.
