Judiciary official says legislators should revamp election challenge laws

The director of the state’s judiciary said Monday that legislators should consider reforming how election challenges are administered throughout the state. 

At an Assembly Budget Committee hearing Monday afternoon, Assemblyman Al Barlas (R-Cedar Grove) asked a top court official about the timing of election challenges and criticized the notion that election challenges can be completed months after a candidate has been sworn into office. Acting Administrative Director of the Courts Michael Blee said the state’s current election laws are “somewhat antiquated.”

Blee said recounts can be ordered and handled expeditiously, but said cases like candidacy eligibility challenges can require more nuanced discovery and legal processes, which inevitably lengthen the time needed to properly handle the case.

“I think it’s something the legislature should look at,” Blee said. “We do have other resources, if we have to assign to other judges. It’s a high priority because it affects your ability to run local governments and perhaps state governments.”

A bill authored by Barlas would allow the chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court to form geographic regions for Superior Court judges handling election-related cases in an effort to expedite the process.

Barlas said New Jersey’s appellate courts have cited a case that allows judgments to be made months after municipal governments have been reorganized, and the Republican said he doesn’t understand that mode of operation.

“That, to me, is just a bizarre way of looking at how municipal governments should operate, that we’ll seat you today but take you out six months from now,” Barlas said.