A Burlington County judge will likely decide next week what may be the ultimate election-law technicality: whether a candidate should be tossed from the ballot because he failed to provide an email address on his nominating petition.
The law says he must. It also gives candidates three days to correct technical defects in their petitions — except for adding signatures — and Tom Rossell missed that deadline.
The somewhat minor dispute carries an additional political wrinkle. Rossell is backed by suspended Mount Holly Fire Director Jason Carty, who was charged this week with petition fraud. Carty’s attorney, former Plainfield Mayor Mark Fury, is also representing Rossell, although election law is not Fury’s regular area of practice.
The judge is being asked to decide whether the statutory cure period means what it says or whether New Jersey’s longstanding policy of interpreting election laws liberally should give Rossell another chance.
The lawsuit was filed by Jim Logue, whose wife, Rosemarie Logue, is the Mount Holly fire commissioner Rossell is seeking to unseat in November.
Rossell filed his petition for the Mount Holly Fire District No. 1 Board of Fire Commissioners on July 27. In the space asking for a campaign email address, he wrote “N/A.”
While on its face the lawsuit may appear trivial, it’s actually an interesting question of rapidly moving targets in New Jersey election matters: which laws are sacred and which ones are fungible.
And the issue is in Burlington County, which has more election law challenges per voter than any other county in New Jersey. Superior Court Judge John Harrington, who hears most election challenges in that vicinage, has said deadlines are negotiable.
State law requires candidates for state, county, and municipal elective offices to include a functioning campaign email address. It permits candidates to amend technical deficiencies within three days of the filing deadline, but Rossell did not supply an email address during that period.
Burlington County Clerk Joanne Schwartz did not notify Rossell that his petition was defective or advise him that he could correct the omission during the three-day cure period.
That could place Rossell in the same difficult position other candidates faced this summer. Judges in three races ruled that candidates are responsible for getting election law right even when a county clerk makes a mistake. These decisions placed the burden of legal compliance on the candidate, rather than allowing an election official’s error or omission to excuse a defective filing.
Jim Logue filed an objection on July 31. Five days later, Burlington County Deputy Clerk Philip Warren informed him that Rossell had supplied an email address after the challenge was filed and would remain on the ballot.
“In the interim, since you filed your petition challenge regarding Mr. Tom Rossell’s missing email address, which would invalidate his petition and ability to be placed on the ballot,” Warren wrote, Rossell “has provided a valid email address.”
Logue argues that allowing the late correction effectively erases the Legislature’s three-day cure period. The statutory scheme, his lawsuit maintains, was intended to allow candidates to fix technical mistakes — not an unlimited second chance after a defect is challenged or a judge is asked to disregard a deadline in the name of ballot access.
Superior Court Judge Terrence Cook signed a consent order allowing Burlington County to conduct its other ballot drawings while postponing the Mount Holly fire district drawing. Under the order, the drawing cannot occur until the case is resolved and any stay has been lifted.
