Secretary of State Tahesha Way has officially decided to keep Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver on the Democratic special primary ballot in New Jersey’s 10th congressional district, potentially bringing McIver’s lengthy and convoluted ballot access saga to an end.
“After full consideration of the record, I hereby adopt [Administrative Law Judge Kim Belin’s] decision of May 22, 2024, and therefore accept Respondent’s nominating petition for the July 16 Special Primary Election,” Way wrote in her decision.
While Way’s ruling could be subject to a lawsuit, for now the matter is closed, and McIver’s name will be placed on the list of candidates for tomorrow’s ballot draw. That should prompt some sighs of relief from the Essex County Democratic Committee and other top Democrats in the 10th district, most of whom are supporting McIver for the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark)’s seat.
McIver’s 1,081 petition signatures – far more than the 200 needed to get on the ballot – were challenged by a rival candidate, former East Orange Councilwoman Brittany Claybrooks, because they all shared one circulator. In an initial hearing, Claybrooks argued to Belin that it would have been logistically unlikely for Robin McIver, the candidate’s mother, to collect all 1,081 signatures herself during the course of one weekend.
That hearing contained no specific evidence supporting Claybrooks’ case, but the next day, the New Jersey Globe reported on text messages sent by Hassan Abdus-Sabur, an aide to McIver, claiming that he had collected some signatures. When asked by the New Jersey Globe, Abdus-Sabur similarly admitted to gathering signatures, thus undercutting McIver’s claim that her mother had circulated them all.
At first, Belin did not allow that text message or the Globe story to be admitted as evidence, and issued a decision last Friday placing McIver on the ballot. But Way remanded that decision back to her two days ago, saying that she needed to perform a more thorough hearing on the admissibility of the text messages and on Abdus-Sabur’s testimony.
The new hearing took place yesterday, but Abdus-Sabur himself did not show up despite being subpoenaed. What did make an appearance, however, was a new text message sent by Abdus-Sabur to McIver in which he recanted his earlier claims, saying that he “lied” and “misspoke” about his own signature-gathering efforts.
In a decision released today, Belin decided not to accept any of the text messages as evidence, determining that they could not be authenticated and that the witnesses who testified on their reliability may have been biased. Claybrooks’ attorney Matt Moench filed an exception to that ruling, but Way evidently determined that the process was robust enough to allow McIver on the ballot.