Election question dispute

By TONY MARQUIS | The Marlton Telegram

A month ago, Council passed an ordinance to place a referendum on the ballot, asking voters to choose whether they’d like to hold the municipal election in May or November.

Last week, Council introduced a new ordinance to repeal the referendum ordinance and hold a special meeting to discuss and vote on its future.

“We want to do the due diligence — we want to make sure that it’s the right thing for this town,” said Deputy Mayor Joseph Howarth, who proposed the ordinance’s addition to the agenda at the beginning of last week’s meeting.

Howarth, along with the two other new Council members, Debbie Hackman and Kurt Croft, voted for the new ordinance. Council member John McKenna and Mayor Randy Brown voted against it.

“So we have to spend more money to talk about this topic that’s supposed to save us money, right?” McKenna said.

McKenna and Brown were part of a Council that approved the original ordinance.

When Howarth heard about the ordinance, he asked Brown to hold off on voting until the new Council members started their terms.

“We felt it was in the best interest to move forward, because of the time restraints when it comes to getting it on the ballot,” Brown said. “Plus, most importantly, there are three facets: It’s good government to do that, it brings more voters out and it saves the township $50,000.”

Brown said low voter turnout for the recent May election contributed to Council’s proposal of the referendum.

In that election, Howarth, Hackman and Croft ran on the same “slogan” to gain majority control of the Council.

Municipal elections in Evesham are technically nonpartisan.

See this week’s print edition of The Telegram for the full story.