Democrats ask appellate court to order curing of Naked Ballots

New Jersey Democrats are asking a judge to order the repair of Naked Ballots across the state after Attorney General Gurbir Grewal opposed attempts by voters to cure the ballot defect.

Naked Ballots occur when voters fail to include and sign the inner envelope and place their ballot directly into the outer envelope — one judge is allowing it.

State law requires mail-in ballots be placed inside an inner envelope that includes a signature.  In the absence of that, ballots are rejected.

Raj Parikh, the counsel to the Democratic state Committee, filed a emergent motion with the appellate court in a bid to obtain a statewide order to allow voters to cure the defect in their ballot and avoid being disenfranchised.

Superior Court Judge Michael F. O’Neill in Hunterdon County yesterday ruled against the attorney general, allowing five voters who didn’t use the inner envelope when returning their vote-by-mail ballot to remedy the problem by appearing at the Board of Elections office today.

But O’Neill declined to apply his ruling statewide.

Grewal has taken the position that Naked Ballots must be rejected.

“In certain counties, naked ballots are being rejected while in others, the law has been construed liberally in favor of the voters to permit curing,’ Parikh wrote in his motion.

Election officials are not issuing notification letters, frequently called “cure letters” for naked ballots leaving it up to voters to contact a judge directly to avoid disenfranchisement.

The state argued that “the ballot of any voter who fails to utilize and sign the mandatory inner envelope is fatally flawed and must be rejected without an opportunity to cure.”

O’Neill ruled that the naked ballots constituted an “honest mistake.”