An unusual, eleventh-hour effort by the Middlesex County Clerk to force a congressional candidate to change his ballot slogan has been rejected by the Division of Elections, which said that the deadline to do so had long since passed.
Last week, Squire Servance, one of 13 Democrats running for the 12th congressional district, received notice from County Clerk Nancy Pinkin that his slogan in Middlesex County, “Middlesex County Democrats for Change,” bore too much similarity to the official slogan of the local county party, “Middlesex County Democratic Organization.” Servance needed to change his slogan, Pinkin wrote, or he risked appearing on the June 2 primary ballot with no slogan at all.
“The use of ‘Middlesex County Democrats For Change’ will lead to voter confusion in down ballot races and conflict with the spirit of the legislation which seeks to ensure that ballot slogans clearly distinguish candidates and prevent misleading associations,” Pinkin wrote.
Servance’s campaign quickly objected to the challenge, noting that congressional candidates’ nominating paperwork falls under the jurisdiction of the state Division of Elections, not individual county clerks. Pinkin’s April 6 letter also arrived weeks after Servance had first filed with the apparently problematic slogan, and ignored the fact that the state has a designated window to file petition objections that had already concluded.
The issue of whether Pinkin had any ability to challenge Servance’s slogan was set to go before a Superior Court judge last Friday, but the matter was withdrawn after Pinkin instead referred it to the Division of Elections.
In a short email today, Division of Elections executive assistant Dawn Schilling wrote that the deadline to file a slogan objection was March 27, and that “no timely objection to Mr. Servance’s slogan was received by the Division before the deadline.” As such, Middlesex County must continue preparing ballots with “Middlesex County Democrats for Change” listed as Servance’s slogan.
Servance told the New Jersey Globe that he was glad the matter is concluded, but frustrated by the fact that his campaign spent time and money dealing with a challenge that was never viable to begin with.
“We had to spend thousands of dollars of legal expenses, time that I had to work on creating the briefs, which meant that I was not out engaging with voters – so it was very very frustrating that we had to do this,” he said. “Where’s the process? Where’s the justice? Where’s the fairness?”
Servance also noted that he submitted similar slogans in Mercer, Somerset, and Union Counties, but none of those counties’ clerks raised any objection to the slogan.
In her initial complaint, Pinkin cited a 2000 case in which Jim Florio’s U.S. Senate campaign filed to run under a number of ballot slogans that were near-identical to the organizational slogans in counties where he did not have party support. A judge ruled that Florio’s use of slogans like “Union County Democratic Committee Inc.” would create public confusion and was impermissible.
There’s little indication, though, that Servance’s slogan was designed to fool voters, especially since “Democrats for Change” is a phrase long associated with reform-minded, anti-organization candidates in New Jersey.
Ballot slogans have long been a way for New Jersey candidates, especially those without official party support, to convey brief messages to primary voters. They took on additional importance after the county line ballot design system was abolished, putting every candidate on equal footing; now, all that differentiates party-supported candidates from their foes are their ballot slogans, giving county parties more reason to diligently protect those slogans.
Servance argued that his slogan wasn’t nearly similar enough to cause any uncertainty, but one race where there might indeed be some voter confusion is the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, where Alex Zdan filed to run in some counties with slogans that look quite a bit like the official local party slogan, but aren’t. In Union County, for example, Union GOP-endorsed candidate Richard Tabor’s slogan is “Union County Republican Organization Endorsed Candidates,” while Zdan’s is “Union County Republican Committee Endorsed Candidates.”