Judge removes candidate from ballot even though voting is underway

A Superior Court Judge today tossed a candidate for a municipal office from the June Democratic primary ballot, even though voting began twelve days ago, underscoring the danger of significant judicial delays in running clean elections that proactively avoid voter confusion.

The judge, Benjamin Telsey, determined that Paulsboro Councilman Eric Singleton fell short of the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot because five voters signed petitions for him and his two primary opponents.  Since the two organization-endorsed candidates filed first, Telsey disqualified the five signers from Singleton’s petition.

Councilman Tahje Thomas is seeking re-election on a slate with Michelle Baylor, endorsed by the Gloucester County Democratic organization.  Singleton was running on his own; he attended today’s hearing but declined Telsey’s offer to speak.

Telsey said there has been no evidence of gamesmanship and that allowing Singleton to remain on the ballot would effectively overturn the statute.

The decision creates a new issue: what to do with the 315 vote-by-mail ballots already mailed out in Paulsboro with Singleton’s name?

Telsey, who has been in no rush to figure this out, scheduled a case management conference for May 6.

But Telsey, the assignment judge for Gloucester County, could be the one most responsible for the hold up.   The motion to remove Singleton from the ballot was filed on April 6, and Telsey didn’t schedule the matter for a hearing until April 17.  He didn’t require the last brief to be filed until April 27, and then gave himself three days to read the brief before holding a hearing this afternoon. The filing deadline was on March 23.

Neither attorney disputed the facts in the challenge, and no witnesses were called, leaving Telsey to decide based on the statute.

Now, he’s waiting six more days before bringing the parties together – he didn’t bring the Gloucester County Clerk, who prints and mails ballots, into the case before today – leaving voters in limbo for another week.

So far, sixteen Paulsboro voters have returned vote-by-mail ballots for the Democratic primary, with more votes likely to be cast before Telsey’s next hearing.

Both sides – Thomas and the Paulsboro municipal clerk – said that new ballots should be reprinted and remailed, though neither suggested how to explain this to voters.

“It would seem that not issuing new ballots would probably create more confusion if Mr. Singleton decides to run a write-in campaign, so it’s complex,” said Michael Maley, an attorney representing the Paulsboro municipal clerk.

Maley also asked who would pay for the changes, which include reprogramming voting machines.  Telsey acknowledged the cost issue.

“It’s not as easy as one would think,” the judge said.  “And it’s not inexpensive either.”

Telsey also admitted that he’s under strict time constraints, although the sluggish schedule doesn’t necessarily indicate that.

“There are time limitations, which are less than I was at least told at the last hearing. It’s less than. It’s less than 30 days, but not much less than 30 days, that they need to be able to go through the process of changing the ballot and the machines for Election Day,” he said. “So time is tight.”