political corruption is sadly nothing new in Hudson County but a city council race in Hoboken has turned especially ugly this week with allegations of voter fraud in a cash for vote scheme the controversy is surrounding the runoff election in hoboken's First Ward between candidates Rafi Cordova and Paul Presinzano.

that election is less than two weeks away and hoboken's mayor Ravi Bhalla has called for an investigation which has drawn finger pointing from both sides including allegations that mayor Bhalla himself is running a smear campaign and trying to install a council that'll side with him during future Council votes senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has more on this messy election runoff a Hoboken Council race runoff has gone off the rails in a town that's Infamous for Bare knuckle politics some folks in this apartment building allege tenant Anna Centron paid other tenants 50 bucks a pop for their vote by maale ballot supposedly to influence the first W Council election but is the accusation true or as critics allege a political smear campaign Hoboken has a history of dirty politics and illegal politics for a long time folks have considered it part for the course uh in the city you know you mention it and it's a shoulder shrug oh that's Hoboken for you well frankly that's not acceptable councilman Joe Quintero says he helped some upset tenants send this letter to New Jersey's attorney general asking for an invest investigation after they saw Centron monitoring the mail room for potential voters including those with Alzheimer's are disabled in more following these individuals to their Apartments to either force a vote for a specific candidate or to collect a blank ballot then following up with a cash payment for the vote they claim it's a scheme to help candidate Paul Presinzano win the first Ward runoff my primary motivations are to help these residents uh have a voice where they feel they have have none and really get these issues on the record with respect to the authorities quino and hobok and mayor Ravi Bhalla both back Presinzano's opponent Rafi Cordova it's high stakes Cordova's Swing Vote could give the mayor a majority on hoboken's N seat Council and Cordova says I believe this is a serious matter in need of Investigation given hoboken's history of these kind of illegal efforts let the investigators and the prosecutors figure it out over time but voters have to make a decision and as you've said Council control is on the line you know which which uh which party which faction is going to govern uh the city council for the next number of years is on the line and so it's it's not an unimportant runoff election here but Presinzano supporters smell a rat it's a Hallmark of our current mayor and every campaign he gets involved in to kind of defend um his candidates and to keep as much control control over local politics um to just use dirty politics and tactics like this councilwoman Tiffany fiser also sent the Attorney General a letter calling the accusations a smear aimed at a damaging headline to be timed on the day vote by mail ballots hit mailboxes two weeks before the election she claims in a city with large apartment buildings Centron simply did what a lot of campaign supporters do help their candidate she has known Paul now for the last couple years and this is just that she wanted to help support in the way that she knows how to which is to help get out the vote Centron stated I vehemently deny paying anyone to vote and I'm looking into filing a defamation suit against those who have made these false allegations she was named in a former Hoboken vote by in case but never charged Presinzano called it all dirty politics stating I would never pay for votes or have anyone pay for votes on my behalf he's considering a lawsuit too but right Micah Rasmussen warned the damage is done the water is muddied um and this can't be undone the toothpaste can't be put back in the tube and so voters are going to have to do the best they can to sort this out voters won't have long the runoffs on December 5th I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News [Music]