Four county clerks have a clear message for Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) as he tries to get a federal judge to nullify New Jersey’s county line system: you’re too late.
The bipartisan set of clerks – Hunterdon County Clerk Mary Melfi, Gloucester County Clerk James Hogan, Cape May County Clerk Rita Rothberg, and Cumberland County Clerk Celeste Riley – said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi today that, regardless of the merits of Kim’s anti-line lawsuit, the judiciary should be hesitant to intervene in the middle of an election with a ruling that would upend New Jersey’s political process.
“At this late date in the process, any actions sought by the Plaintiff Kim, considered by this Court or orders entered will have cascading and rippling effects on the election, officials, candidates and voters,” wrote veteran elections lawyer John Carbone on behalf of the clerks. “Thus, we raise concerns about timing of actions, disruption of the ongoing election process and ultimately effect and impact on the voters.”
Kim brought his lawsuit on Monday; if successful, it would eliminate the New Jersey county line (which groups county party-endorsed candidates with one another on primary ballots) and require county clerks to instead organize ballots via an “office block” system. But as the clerks noted in their letter, Kim has spent the last several months working to earn county lines anyways, and has in fact won three of them so far.
“After those efforts and the entry of other candidates into the process, he seeks not to tinker and tweak the process but tear and tumble down the process he participated in and sought the benefits for his candidacy,” Carbone wrote. “Perhaps whimsey or waiver of any right to relief?”
The clerks also question whether Kim and his co-plaintiffs, Democratic congressional candidates Sarah Schoengood and Carolyn Rush, have afforded other “necessary and indispensable parties” the ability to be heard on the case. Kim’s lawsuit names 19 clerks as defendants, all of whom represent counties with a county line system; Secretary of State Tahesha Way and two clerks from line-free counties are listed as interested parties.
The clerks’ letter does not directly apply to Kim’s actual argument, which is that the county line system confers unconstitutional advantages upon certain candidates and interferes with candidates’ right to free association. In fact, the clerks make clear that their concerns “do not necessarily oppose the ultimate relief” – the end of the county line – but instead are focused on “the protection of the election process and the interests of the voter.”
Quraishi has scheduled a telephone conference call for tomorrow to set a hearing date on Kim’s motion; any legal proceedings will have to happen quite quickly, since the New Jersey filing deadline is on March 25 and ballots will have to be laid out and printed soon afterwards.
Carbone response line lawsuit 28 Feb 2024