By Sunayana Prabhu
FAIR HAVEN – It appears Fair Haven voters are of two minds.
Preliminary election results show a split ticket in the borough with Democratic candidate Michal DiMicelli leading the race for council by a thin margin ahead of Republican challenger Brian Olson. Both newcomers are in a close race for two open council seats alongside Democrat Neil Blecher and Republican Melissa Lowry.
While the official count won’t be certified until all mail-in votes are counted, the initial tally from the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office shows DiMicelli winning with 1,132 votes, followed very closely by Olson with 1,121 votes. Lowry currently has 1,113 votes and Blecher has 1,078.
If the current margins hold, DiMicelli will be the sole Democrat on Fair Haven’s six-member governing body. The two winning candidates this year will be replacing Democratic council members Laline Neff and Christopher Rodriguez, who chose not to run for reelection.
DiMicelli is an active volunteer on Fair Haven’s Environmental Commission and Green Team and has around 25 years of business expertise, along with experience in municipal government for the City of Long Branch.
Olson currently serves on the Fair Haven Planning Board as well as the Environmental Commission, and is a municipal bond underwriter with professional expertise in analyzing local government budgets.
With fewer than 20 votes separating DiMicelli from Lowry and only 54 from the top vote-getter to the bottom, the final election result could easily change. Pending votes will come from Election Day drop box collections, provisional ballots, mail-in ballots and cure letters (ballots with minor errors that are reviewed, fixed and added to the total vote count). The current results reported on the official website of the county clerk’s office as of press time Wednesday, only display votes processed from early voting and Election Day machines.
The article originally appeared in the November 9 – November 15, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
