Preliminary Election Results:
In Livingston, the three incumbent Township Council members all won re-election. For the Livingston Public Schools Board of Education, Pam Chirls retained her seat and Inna Yelisevich also won by a narrow margin over Sam Messer.
Anthony and Vieira were each selected to new four-year terms, and Bhuptani will finish the final two years of his term.
This will be Anthony’s third term in office. For Vieira, it is his second full term, after he first joined the Council and then won a special election to retain the seat in 2019.
Bhuptani was selected to replace Rosy Bagolie earlier this year. Bagolie left her seat on the Council after one year when she was elected to the state Assembly.
All three candidates were running unopposed on the ballot. Vieira received 9,611 votes, Anthony netted 9,535 votes, and Bhuptani got 9,508 votes.
Chirls and Yelisevich were elected to three-year terms on the school board. This will be Chirls’ fifth consectuve term on the Board; she was first elected in 2012. Yelisevich will be new to the Board.
While Messer’s name was on the ballot - so, the newly-elected Board members were not technically running unopposed for the two open seats - Messer was not campaigning for the position. Still the race was close. Chirls received 6,716 votes and Yelisevich netted 5,222 votes. Messer, despite not campaigning and trying to remove her name from the ballot, received 5,013.
These numbers are preliminary, taken from the Essex County election website as of press time Wednesday morning. 100 percent of districts had reported as of that time, according to the website.
