Incumbents Stay On Track For Re-Election In Cherry Hill

CHERRY HILL, NJ — Two incumbents are still on track to be re-elected in Cherry Hill following a second full day of counting the 2020 election results in Camden County, according to officials.

Democrat William A. Carter is leading Republican Nancy Feller O'Dowd in the special election to fill an unexpired term on Cherry Hill Council. Carter, who was appointed to the seat following the resignation of Carolyn Jacobs, has 22,557 votes. O'Dowd has 11,373 votes.

Incumbent Carol Matlack is second in the race for three open seats on the Cherry Hill Public School District Board of Education. She has 17,656. Miriam Stern maintains the lead with 19,173 votes, and Ineda "Corrien" Elmore-Stratton remains in third with 15,070 votes.

She leads John Papeika by 1,551 votes for the third seat. Papeika has 13,519 votes. Aslihan Cakmak has 10,924 votes, and is 4,146 votes behind Elmore-Stratton.

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As of Friday, Camden County had counted 186,378 vote-by-mail ballots and 203 machine ballots. No provisional ballots had been counted as of Friday, and turnout was 398,475.

According to the Board of Elections, the county will update numbers daily through Nov. 23. It will begin counting provisional ballots on Nov. 11.

Election Day was Tuesday, and the county has updated results four times since, including once on Election Day, twice on Wednesday, once on Thursday and once on Friday. The process was slowed by bad barcodes on ballots in multiple Camden County towns, according to the Courier Post. Gloucester Township was not one of those towns.

Board Member Matlack and candidates Elmore-Stratton, Cakmak, Papeika and Stern all pursued the open seats on the school board in Tuesday's election. Board Member Eric Goodwin initially filed a petition to run in this year's race, but later dropped out.

"While improving our facilities is the long range focus, the current COVID-19 crisis is our immediate focus," said Matlack, who served on the board since 2010. "Remote learning and safely bringing our staff and students back into the buildings, along with the social and emotional well-being of our students and staff during this crisis, needs to be our focus."

Stratton said the district has to be careful not to let the achievement gap grow during the pandemic.

"In addition, I believe that this awkward learning year has brought on heavy tension between the administration, the staff, and the families, and so I believe there will be a new issue of resetting the culture and tone of the district once we resume our traditional school year of study," Stratton said. "I plan to consistently raise awareness of the need for this negative tension to be addressed and shifted."

Cakmak is a chairperson of the Business and Computer Science Department at Middlesex County College, and said she can bring the experience helping the college reopen to Cherry Hill.

"Because of the early planning and necessary investments in human and technology resources, we started our Fall 2020 seamlessly," Cakmak said. "I would bring my experience and propose to form a committee to work with me. However, we will not be able to assume the board member role before January 2021."

Mental health will be a key to getting through the pandemic, and Stern has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for 25 years.

"I am the only candidate who is an experienced mental health professional with a deep understanding of social-emotional learning and student mental health wellness program development," Stern said. "In 2004, I founded a group counseling practice in Cherry Hill, and now work as both a therapist and administrator of the practice that has grown to have 20 therapists with two locations."

Papeika knows the district will need to find new ways to provide the best possible education, which is one reason he wants to serve on the board.

"Students, parents, teachers, and staff have been through a lot during the last six months," Papeika said. "Schools have had to reinvent the way to educate. I feel that as a member of the Cherry Hill School board, I can help assist our schools set goals to navigate the new ways and to provide the best education while keeping the needs of all residents in mind."

For full coverage of the 2020 election in New Jersey, go here: New Jersey Elections 2020