Judge issues temporary restraints against Cherry Hill progressive Dems

The Camden County Democratic Committee wants a judge to fill 71 vacancies on the Cherry Hill Democratic county committee from the list of candidates who ran on the organization’s slogan after a slate of three progressives won the June 10 primary in a contest where voters checked one box in a winner-take-all election.  Now a judge has restrained the three from conducting any business until a July 11 hearing.

A South Jersey Progressive Democrats slate of Susan Druckenbrod, Rena Margulis and David Stahl – three candidates for 74 seats – defeated the 74-candidate organization slate, 5,547 to 3,350.

The organization Democrats maintain that the winning slate didn’t include enough candidates to have a quorum to organize, pointing to the party bylaws requiring 30% of the county committee to be in attendance.

Superior Court Judge Michael Kassal signed an order to show cause today temporarily restraining the winner, and an oral argument is set for July 11.  Druckenbrod, Margulies and Stahl are prohibited from noticing or any meetings, adopting or amending any bylaws, or attempting to fill the 71 vacancies

In a lawsuit filed today, attorney William Tambussi argued that U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi’s ruling last year that ended county lines made it impossible to place “ovals” adjacent to the name of each of the 74 candidates because the voting machines could not accommodate individual votes for each contender.

The organization also maintains that the ballot violates a new state law that prohibited “Ballot Siberia,” the practice of placing candidates at the end of an extended amount of white space on the ballot, making them difficult to find..