On September 28, Cranbury Township, New Jersey, wired $26 million to cybercriminals. The money was supposed to purchase property to satisfy the town's affordable housing obligations. It went somewhere else entirely.

Residents didn't find out until November 6 — three days after they'd already voted to keep the same Democrats in charge.

Cranbury Mayor Lisa Knierim disclosed the theft via a Facebook post, more than five weeks after it happened, according to the New Jersey Globe. The timeline is remarkable. The theft occurred September 28. Election Day was November 3. Democrat Thomas Szczur Jr. defeated Republican Carol Haring 63% to 37%, maintaining the party's 5-0 control of the Township Committee. Then — and only then — did Knierim tell the public that their town had been robbed of more money than its entire annual budget.

Cranbury's yearly budget is $16 million. The stolen amount was $26 million. The cyberthieves got 162% of what it costs to run the town for a full year, in a single wire transfer, from a municipality of roughly 4,000 people.

A task force led by Police Chief Giuseppe DeChiara and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, with state and federal assistance, has frozen approximately $17.3 million. That leaves $8.7 million unaccounted for — money that may be gone permanently. For a town of 4,000, that's roughly $2,175 per resident that just evaporated.

Knierim's statement after the disclosure included this line: "One of the most important responsibilities of our Township Committee is to communicate openly and honestly with the community we serve, particularly when faced with difficult circumstances."

She said this after waiting 39 days to communicate. After an election in which her party's candidate won by 26 points. After residents went to the polls with no idea that the people asking for their votes had just presided over the largest financial loss in the town's history.

The township's proposed response is to create two new government positions — an Assistant Township Administrator and an Assistant Chief Financial Officer — plus hire a municipal accounting firm. More government employees to fix a problem caused by the existing government employees. Cranbury's 4,000 residents are now funding the cleanup of a disaster they weren't told about until it was too late to hold anyone accountable at the ballot box.

Carol Haring ran against Szczur and lost by 26 points. The question nobody in Cranbury's Democratic leadership wants to answer is simple: what's the margin if voters know about the $26 million before they fill in the bubble?

Szczur won on November 3. Knierim talked on November 6. $8.7 million is still missing.