I won my 2022 N.J. election. I was sworn in. Then it was all taken away.

Days after election night in 2022, after waiting to let all the votes be counted, I learned that I won a school board race in Ocean Township, N.J., by 20 votes, a difficult feat in a field of six candidates running for three seats. Almost two months later, I had the honor of being sworn into my town’s Board of Education before my friends and family. It was a personal and professional dream come true. Victory was sweet.

After that, I got a call that no one could expect. There was a voting machine mishap in two election districts where human error allowed some votes to be counted twice; my election was now in doubt.

A hand recount showed I lost by four votes — 3,404 to 3,408 votes for the incumbent. I could have legally challenged the results — I was well within my rights to do so — but I have remained steadfast in my belief that this issue is bigger than just my candidacy or my local school board race.

In the time since I received that phone call, I’ve had many questions on how this happened, some of which were answered, and some are still outstanding.