After motor vehicles error, judge refuses to allow voter to be disenranchised

Superior Court Judge Robert Ballard, Jr. today unhesitatingly allowed a Somerset County man to vote in the Democratic primary after a New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission mishap changed his voter registration to the obscure U.S. Constitution Party.

The voter, whose name is being withheld by the New Jersey Globe to protect his privacy, said he visited the motor vehicles office on April 25 to obtain a Real ID, only to find out later that he was ineligible to vote in the June 10 primary election.

He said he had never heard of the U.S. Constitution Party.

“I will tell you right now, under oath, I did not intend to do that,” the voter said.

Ballard took the side of the voter.

“He’s sincere. He’s credible. I have no problems believing his story as to what happened, and, in fact, I don’t think anyone is disagreeing that that’s what happened is he was already registered as a Democrat. He did that for the purposes of voting in the primary,” Ballard stated.  “There was clearly some error at the MVC, whether it was his or whether it was the prompter or some MVC employee, but it was never his intent to register for the U.S.  Constitution Party, which doesn’t even have a primary.”

“I’m not going to allow this error, however it occurred, to disenfranchise him from voting,” Ballard said.   I’m going to permit him to vote.”

On Tuesday, another Superior Court Judge, Wendy Allyson Reek, denied a bid by a Somerset County woman whose voter registration was changed from Democratic to unaffiliated, to vote in this year’s Democratic primary.   The circumstances between that case and the one Ballard decided differently were nearly identical.

Ballard wanted to know how the MVC could change the man’s party affiliation nine days after the deadline.

“I think this is critical: the time period by which, even if he wanted to change his party affiliation for this primary had already passed, April 16th was the last date he could do that,” said Ballard.

The voter testified that he voted in the 2024 Democratic primary and wanted to vote in the 2025 Democratic primary.

He also described his experience in obtaining a Real ID.

“I had the opportunity to go through the gauntlet. After about an hour and a half of doing that, I got up to,” he said.  “So, I am checking out and there are two keypads in front of me, and one keypad where you are to pay your fee, put in your credit card, that kind of thing, and the second keypad is various questions that the Department of Motor Vehicles runs through — one of them being about your voter.”

He reported that “the styluses or the electronic pens attached to the keypads were all tangled up, so I started to answer questions here or there.”

Ballard ordered that the man be allowed to vote by mail-in ballot.