ROCKAWAY TOWNSHIP - Nominating petitions seem cut and dry. You get enough names, you get on the ballot.

But there are always technicalities.

Tucker Kelley knows that.

Kelley, to put it mildly, has been a political presence in this Morris County town for years. Kelley has his critics, but he also served a 4-year term on the council.

And this year, he's running again in the June Republican primary for council from Ward 6.

To that end, he is challenging the nominating petitions of his opponent - Rachael Brookes - and three other GOP council hopefuls. He also is challenging some of the petitions of those running for the county committee, but at this point, let's concentrate on the council, which is more meaningful to the public. The county committee is more of an insiders' game.

Kelley's point: The circulator of the above petitions did not sign the required affidavit to that effect.

Moreover, Kelley alleges that some rather comical-looking, hanky-panky took place - namely that some of the candidates tried to fix things by signing an affidavit after the fact and pre-dating it.

Kelley made his concerns known in a letter to Adele Wadleigh, the acting municipal clerk.

She wrote back and said she took "no action" on Kelley's objections.

Undaunted, Kelley and his lawyer, Walter Luers, are planning to take the matter to court.

For starters, they want to stop the printing and mailing of ballots for the Rockaway Township GOP primary until this gets straightened out.

This is one race in one New Jersey town and, as we know, New Jersey has a lot of towns.

The larger point is that Kelley's actions tend to keep things on the "straight and narrow."

You wonder what goes on in towns when no one is watching.