SCHOOL BOARD BALLOT SET, BUT IS IT EVEN MORE CONFUSING?

If you're trying to decide who to vote for in the school board race, with nine candidates running for three seats -- including two incumbents -- the list of names on the ballot may not help.

That's because they are listed in random order due to a lottery system done in August, according to the Essex County Clerk, and not by any organized slates.

The list, as it will appear on the ballot, is:

Marian C. Raab

Shannel Roberts

Dorcas Lind

AnneMarie Maini

Madhu Pai (I)

Elissa Malespina

Margaret Freedson

Chris Sabin

Wayne Eastman(I)

The clerk's office explained that the names were drawn from a BINGO-style device at random and the names will appear that way on Nov. 3.

So even if Maini is running with Sabin, her name is placed between Lind and Pai. But Pai is running with Eastman and Freedson. 

Of course, Eastman is placed last, even though he is board president, and next to Sabin, and after Freedson, who is running with Eastman and Pai. At least Raab and Roberts are next to each other since they are running together. But their third running mate, Malespina, is between Pai and Freedson, who are also running together.

It's a good thing you have more than a month to make sense of it.