Longtime Democrat can’t vote in N.J. primary, judge says

A 71-year-old East Orange woman who voted in at least the last six Democratic primaries will have to sit out 2025 after Superior Court Judge Robert Gardner ruled that a Motor Vehicle Commission mishap resulted in her becoming registered as a member of the U.S. Constitution Party.

This is the third motor vehicle commission-related voter registration issue to go before a judge since early voting began on Tuesday.  In nearly identical circumstances, one judge allowed the voter to cast a vote, and another refused.

The woman, whose name is being withheld by the New Jersey Globe to protect her privacy, told Superior Court Judge Robert Gardner on Wednesday that she had recently lost her job and that her 23-year-old daughter went online roughly eight days earlier to get her a duplicate driver’s license.

“Apparently, she didn’t know I was already a registered voter, so she picked up the wrong thing. But I’m a Democrat,” the woman stated.  “I should be able to vote … I should have the right to vote Democrat.”

She said she didn’t know what the U.S. Constitution Party was.

Deputy Attorney General Samantha Lysk told Gardner the woman was “ineligible to vote.”

Gardner told the voter that the fault lies with the legislature.

“If they want to change the law, they can change it … I have to follow the law the way the law is written. And I know it wasn’t your fault.  Apparently, your daughter accidentally changed your registration from Democrat to Constitution Party, which I’d never heard of until now. But even so, when that happens, that disqualifies you from voting in the primary,” Gardner said.  “It may have been her mistake, but I can’t fix her mistake at this point.”

William Connolly, a spokesman for the Motor Vehicles Commission, declined to say why voters were allowed to change their party identification between the April 16 deadline and the primary election.

The woman’s voter abstract shows a long history of voting in Democratic primaries.