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Asbury Park Press

A REASON
TO WATCH

TURBULENCE
AHEAD
Global stocks
plunge as OPEC
says oil market

Odell Beckham Jr.

will stabilize itself

keeps Giants fans

STORY, 1B

engaged despite
dreadful season.
COLUMN, D1

MONDAY 12.15.14

Turnout at polls again slips

to new low in New Jersey

WHERE ARE
THE VOTERS?
When Lauren Placa (left) needed access to a
locked-off beach ramp in Bradley Beach in
summer 2013, her dad went to the beach hut
for the key and ended up getting arrested.
COURTESY OF PLACA FAMILY

Father is
vindicated
for day at
the beach

MICHAEL SYMONS @MICHAELSYMONS_

TRENTON Cory Booker gets to return to the U.S. Senate, but the big winners in
New Jerseys election were apathy and indifference, in a landslide.
Official numbers compiled by the state Division of Elections show just 35.8 percent of registered voters cast ballots in last months election, in which Booker officially won re-election by 13.5 percentage points.
That was one of the lowest turnouts in the United States and the lowest on record
for a year a U.S. Senate race topped the New Jersey ballot. Compared with parliamentary elections worldwide, it would be worse than in any country except Gambia,
Haiti, Nigeria and Gabon.
Its pretty abysmal. Somethings got to be done, said Kerry Margaret Butch,
executive director of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey.
New Jersey voters are on a streak of sorts, though not one to brag about.
Last years gubernatorial race had the lowest percentage turnout on record for a
governors election and fewest ballots cast since 1985. The 2012 election had the lowest turnout on record for a presidential year, 67 percent. The 2010 election tied a
record low for a year the House topped the ballot. Similarly, the smallest turnouts for
elections when the state Senate or Assembly were atop the ballot were also in the
most recent year each got top billing.
This is really a symptom of a sense that government is really just not working.

Bradley Beach charge

overturned for Ohio man
ANDREW FORD @ANDREWFORDNEWS

Charles Placa fought for his daughter and won.

Rather than pay a $106 fine for a disorderly conduct
conviction, the 59-year-old Ohio man estimates he spent
up to $10,000 to fight the case, which was overturned
Friday in Superior Court.
It began on July 29, 2013, when Placa went to Bradley
Beach with his wife and daughter, Lauren, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. The gate to a handicapped ramp on the beach was locked. A beach-badge
checker pointed Placa toward a beach hut, and he went
inside through a door meant for employees.
The 72-year-old cashier in the hut testified in municipal court that she thought Placa was trying to rob her
and that he used vulgar language. Placa testified he
didnt use vulgar language; he left and went to an outside window to get the key, as the cashier told him to.
Police arrived and arrested Placa in front of his wife
and daughter, who was in a special beach wheelchair
designed to be used on sand.

See VOTERS, Page A6

Voter turnout in New Jersey

this year was below 36 percent, easily the lowest
on record for a U.S. Senate election.

See BEACH, Page A6

Scan the code to visit

APP.com for a video of the
court hearing.

Before the Boss, there was Ciccolini

JERRY CARINO CARINOS CORNER
For decades, people flocked to leading opera houses all over the world to
hear Guido Ciccolini sing.
Joe and Jim Petillo had to travel no
further than the kitchen table in their
grandfathers Ocean Township home.
Hed stand up, shoulders would go
back, chest would bulge, and he would
break into song, Joe Petillo recalled.
Let me tell you, when he sang, it filled the house. It
filled the neighborhood.
Long before Springsteen and Bon Jovi, Monmouth
County was home to a superstar vocalist who helped

TANYA BREEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The tombstone marks the grave of famed opera tenor Guido

Ciccolini at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Neptune.

See TENOR, Page A6

HELP FLEEING ISIL

Wall church raises money for Christians
persecuted by extremists. STORY, A3

ADVICE
BUSINESS
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
LOCAL

C4
A10
C6
C5
A3

LOTTERIES
OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
WEATHER

A2
A11
A13
D1
D8

NUMBER 299

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SINCE 1879

VOLUME 135

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