Secretary of State Dale Caldwell has certified that Sue Altman made the ballot in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, but not without making a few important edits to an Administrative Law Judge’s decision from earlier this week.
Most importantly, Caldwell ruled that individuals registered in other states are indeed allowed to gather signatures, overruling ALJ Michael Stanzione and further nullifying a state law banning out-of-state circulators.
Altman’s 1,022 petition signatures were challenged by two of her Democratic primary opponents, and hundreds of them were thrown out for a variety of garden-variety defects like incorrect party registration or home address. (Finding such defects is common during a petition challenge, though some of Altman’s petitions from Plainfield contained more systemic issues.)
Two tranches of signatures with issues related to their circulators, however, caused more complications. Stanzione ruled that 83 signatures collected by Princeton University students registered to vote outside of New Jersey were invalid, while 35 signatures collected by a circulator initially registered as a member of the Green Party who later switched to become a Democrat were acceptable.
In a final decision issued yesterday, Caldwell disagreed on both counts. While Stanzione argued that he needed to follow state law on out-of-state circulators, Caldwell wrote that a federal court case related to the 2020 presidential election had already determined that statute to be unconstitutional, concurring with an argument Altman’s attorney had made during the challenge.
“The Constitutional invalidity of [state statute] with respect to the residency requirement of petition circulators is equally applicable to presidential primary candidates and congressional primary candidates,” Caldwell wrote. “Thus, pursuant to Arsenault [the 2020 presidential election case], out-of-state individuals must be permitted to act as petition circulators so as to not unconstitutionally violate associational rights of political parties.”
Caldwell determined that the Green Party circulator, on the other hand, did not change their registration in time for their petitions to count. The deadline to become a Democrat and cure the petitions’ defect was March 26, Caldwell wrote, but the circulator didn’t change their registration until March 29.
Altman’s campaign had filed an exception to Stanzione’s ruling on the out-of-state circulator issue, and she told the New Jersey Globe that she considered Caldwell’s decision to be an important victory for student engagement.
“It was really important to our campaign that we go back to bat to make sure that our student volunteers had the chance to participate in this process – not only for them and this particular cycle, but for all students in the future,” Altman said. “I’m thrilled at this outcome, though not surprised, and look forward to working with our student volunteers in the weeks to come.”
Regardless of Caldwell’s changes, the outcome is essentially the same; Stanzione had ruled that Altman had 664 valid signatures, while Caldwell’s final opinion certifies that she has 712. Both numbers are well above the 500 she needed, so the petition challenges were not especially close to succeeding either way.
Caldwell also approved ballot access for four other candidates who had their petitions unsuccessfully challenged: Republican Damon Galdo in the 1st district, Democrat Terri Reese in the 2nd district, Democrat John Blake in the 4th district, and Republican Tiffany Burress in the 9th district. Another candidate facing a petition challenge, 5th district Republican John Aslanian, withdrew from the race before the challenge could begin.