Kean campaign not opposing Malinowski suit over naked ballots

State Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean’s (R-Westfield) congressional campaign did not oppose Rep. Tom Malinowski’s suit seeking a list of rejected ballots from five counties in the seventh district, but they wany any information Malinowski’s team gets.

“In the interest of fairness and transparency, if the Court is inclined to grant Plaintiff’s motion and determines that Plaintiff is entitled to the Requested Information, we respectfully request that any order include a provision that the Kean Campaign be provided with the same Requested Information,” Kean campaign attorney Robert Mintz said in a filing.

Malinowski’s team sued to get a list of voters whose ballots were rejected for lacking an inner envelopes. They argue that such “naked ballots” lack a signature and are thus eligible for a cure under state law, which requires election officials notify voters in the case of a missing or mismatching signature.

Four of the counties — Warren, Somerset, Morris and Essex — have so far not provided voters with a chance to cure such ballots.

Hunterdon County allowed cures for a limited group following a judge ordering as much there but has also eschewed widespread cures for such voters.

The Democrat’s campaign is also seeking to add three out-of-state attorneys from the suit, each of whom work for Perkins Coie LLP.

On Monday, the campaign submitted filings to the court asking that Heidee Stoller and Alexander Tischenko be allowed to argue the case, which was assigned to Mercer County Judge Brian McLaughlin for pretrial matters. They’d join New Jersey election lawyer Scott Salmon, of Jardim, Meisner & Susser, P.C., and Bruce Spiva, who also belongs to Perkins Coie.

The case was moved to the Somerset/Hunterdon/Warren Vicinage after being filed on Friday.

Sunday Afternoon, Malinowski led Kean by 4,961 votes, 209,933 to 204,972 (50.6% to 49.4%) in the close race for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district.

The ballot cure deadline is Nov. 18. The deadline to certify election results comes two days later.