PATERSON – Of the 3,542 mail-in ballots returned in today’s mayoral election, the Passaic County Board of Elections has rejected about 300 of them, according to sources close to the county offices downtown.

From their war room in the Brownstone, the allies of Ward 6 Councilman Andre Sayegh suppressed a spasm of excitement to reorder themselves on the GOTV effort at hand.

Monster MIBs form a critical part of the campaign strategy of Sayegh’s rival Alex Mendez, whose campaign manager Henry Sosa specializes in mail-in-ballot harvesting.

At the Board of Elections Office,Chairman John Currie said he suspected the number of rejected ballots was closer to 200.

But they were still receiving and county late in the afternoon.