With office block voting being used in Democratic primaries in New Jersey for the first time in at least 100 years, today’s ballot draw will draw more public attention than usual and take on an outsized level of importance in a primary than in nineteen counties. This marks the surrender of county organization lines – perhaps just for this year, or maybe forever.
At 3 PM, all 21 county clerks will gather in a public place to randomly draw ballot positions. After a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi last Friday, those clerks are required to design office block ballots for the Democrats. Republicans may keep their lines, for now, after the judge on Saturday said the preliminary injunction he signed applies only to the Democrats.
Under office block ballots, today’s drawing could impact hotly contested Democratic congressional primaries in the 3rd and 8th districts, as well as the 2nd, where there is no clear front-runner in the race to pick a Democratic challenger against Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis). All eyes are on the Passaic County Clerk, Danielle Ireland-Imhof, in a county where primaries for sheriff and three county commissioner seats make the ballot draw hugely important.
The idea of a random draw has been around for a while, but the definition of random has been historically fungible in a way that’s peculiar, even in New Jersey.
Ballot drawings are public events where the most minuscule elements may be viewed up close – but without touching them. Clerks have a statutory obligation to conduct fair and open drawings.
Click HERE to find contact information for your county clerk.
Last week, Orange City Clerk Joyce Lanier was ordered to redraw the ballots after a Superior Court judge in Essex County found her procedures to be unlawful. The attorneys who sued, Scott Salmon and Tom Jardim, were awarded legal fees.
Some county clerks livestream their drawings, either to Facebook or on their website, although that is not a requirement.
One amazing statute worth noting: New Jersey law requires names to be drawn from a box “with an aperture in the cover of sufficient size to admit a man’s hand.”