RNC sues Mercer County Board of Elections to force release of ballot cure letters

Update: A court hearing has been scheduled for September 27. 

The Republican National Committee wants a judge to order the Mercer County Board of Elections to fulfill requests for copies of ballot cure letters within 72 hours in future elections after they refused to respond to public document requests for the 2021 general election.

In a lawsuit filed on Friday, Republicans claimed that the Mercer election board violated New Jersey’s Ballot Cure Act – a law that allows voters whose vote-by-mail ballots were rejected for technical deficiencies, including unmatched signatures, to remedy their ballots – and the state’s Open Public Records Act.

The RNC began seeking ballot cure letters on October 19, 2021.  Mercer appears to have punted and sought extensions, at one point saying the documents would be released after the certification date but did not respond until 91 days later, on January 18, 2022, and still did not give the records they asked for.

Since the settlement of a lawsuit filed by the New Jersey League of Women Voters in 2020 challenging the rejection of VBM ballots for signature match issues, the chasing of cure letters has become routine for close elections.

“The overwhelming majority of election officials throughout the state responded to these requests in an expeditious manner,” the local counsel for the RNC, Brian Nelson and Jason Sena of Archer & Greiner, said in filings.

The lawsuit claims that Mercer County failed in providing cure letters related to the June 2022 primary election.

“The effective administration of elections requires election officials like the Board of Elections to be transparent and cooperative when dealing with members of the public,” Nelson and Sena wrote in their brief.  “The Board of Elections’ denial of the RNC’s simple requests for public records accomplishes neither, and was unlawful.”

While Mercer rarely has close partisan elections, that could change this fall if the race between Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) and Republican Bob Healey turns out to be close.

In that case, both sides would be chasing cure letters in Hamilton, Lawrence, East Windsor, West Windsor and Robbinsville for a November 19 deadline before the results of the election are certified on November 21.

The lawsuit could also effect contests for mayor and Trenton city council.  Trenton moved their non-partisan municipal elections from May to November this year, and where runoffs typically occur.

In a state where legal challenges to elections run an a hugely sluggish pace, there is a narrow and seemingly impractical window for the December 6 runoff.

The deadline to apply for a recount is November 25, just eleven days before the runoff.  Any court fight over a recount

It will now be up to Mercer County Assignment Judge Robert Lougy to decide how quickly he wants to act on the GOP lawsuit.

This story was updated on August 2, 2022 at 11:23 AM.