Atlantic City voter says she was pressured to vote for candidate that wasn’t her choice

Update at 11:42 AM: Superior Court Judge Stanley Bergman, Jr. will order the sequestering of four ballots — two cast by mail and two in-person provisionals — until a court hearing set for November 14.  

A fascinating election case involving a single vote will be heard by a Superior Court judge in Atlantic County this morning.

The voter from Atlantic City’s 5th Ward wants her vote-by-mail ballots voided after alleging that she was pressured into filling out a VBM application, designating an unknown messenger,  and pressuring her to vote for a candidate who wasn’t her choice.

The New Jersey Globe is withholding the voter’s name to protect her privacy.

She claims someone showed up at her home around October 29 and asked if she planned to vote in today’s election.

“I am an immigrant, English is not my first language – Bengali is – and I do not know much about elections.  At the time, I did not know exactly what the application was, even though I understood it had to do with the election.  I now understand that this was an application for a mail-in ballot.  The unknown woman directed me to complete the application in a certain way, including by designating another unknown individual as a ‘messenger,’” she said in a sworn statement to the court.  “The unknown woman took my application and left.”

Then, the following day, she claims a different person – “a middle-aged, heavier-set, African American male, showed up at my residence.  He was bearing a mail-in ballot for me,” the voter stated.  “This unknown male pressured me to vote for a particular candidate in the race for the Atlantic City 5th Ward Council seat, even though it was not my preferred candidate.”

“I felt intimidated and pressured, and would have voted for my preferred candidate, but for the unknown male’s involvement,” she said.  “Under duress, I completed the ballot, signed in all the necessary places, and sealed the envelope.  The unknown male then left bearing my ballot.”

According to the voter, the same thing happened to her husband, but he had planned to vote for the candidate the assistor wanted him to.

Both cast provisional ballots during the early voting period, asking the court to void their vote-by-mail ballots and order the provisional votes to be counted.

The voter’s attorney, Elliot J. Almanza, told the New Jersey Globe that he asked the Deputy Attorney General representing the Atlantic County Board of Elections to put the two ballots aside until the judge hears the complaint.

It’s not immediately clear if the man in question is Craig Callaway, a former Atlantic City Council President, and a veteran ballot harvester.

Last Friday, Superior Court Judge Michael Blee permanently banned Callaway from acting as an election assistor.

It’s possible that the judge could refer the incident to the Atlantic County Prosecutor.

In the city council race, Democrat Muhammad “Anjum” Zia, the incumbent, faces Republican Maria Lacca.   The voter did not indicate in court documents who her preferred candidate was.