Beach’s Libertarian opponent in LD6 booted off ballot

State Sen. Jim Beach (D-Voorhees) will not have to face a Libertarian candidate in his safely Democratic district this November, with Administrative Law Judge Judith Lieberman ruling today that Matthew Asman did not collect enough valid signatures to appear on the ballot.

Asman, who did not appear at today’s hearing, had filed for State Senate in the 6th legislative district with 72 signatures, 22 more than the 50 needed this year for independent legislative candidates. But 37 of his signatures were challenged, of which Lieberman determined that 35 were invalid, mostly because they came from people who don’t reside within the district or aren’t registered to vote at all.

The challenge was brought by Edward Bray, a Haddon Township resident with ties to the South Jersey Democratic organization who is now on his second 6th legislative district petition challenge of the year.

In April, Bray challenged the petitions of Republican Senate candidate Lynn Lofland, who had unwisely filed with the bare minimum of 100 signatures. (Thanks to a quirk in state law, major-party candidates had to get twice as many signatures this year as independent candidates.) Lofland was quickly disqualified after five of her signatures were found to be invalid.

But Camden County Republicans mounted an effort to get Lofland on the general election ballot via write-ins in the Republican primary, an effort that looks like it may have been successful. 255 write-in votes were cast in the 6th district Republican Senate primary, and it seems probable that Lofland received at least 100 of them, the threshold for ballot access.

Ironically, as a Libertarian, Asman would have likely drawn votes from Lofland; by getting him kicked off the ballot, Bray may have reduced Beach’s ultimate margin of victory in November.

But that’s almost completely irrelevant in a Cherry Hill-based district that regularly backs Democrats by 30 points or more. No matter how many general election opponents Beach faces, he’s completely safe for another term in the seat he’s held since 2009.