Judge to decide whether Elizabeth council challenger stays on ballot

An independent candidate for Elizabeth City Council will fight to keep her name on the November ballot Monday morning when Superior Court Judge John Deitch hears a lawsuit challenging the validity of her nominating petitions.

Sixth Ward Councilman Frank Mazza is seeking to remove independent candidate Janei Holder from the November 3 general election ballot.

Holder submitted 283 petition signatures to qualify for the ballot, nearly double the 138 required by law.  After reviewing objections filed by Mazza, the Union County Clerk invalidated 107 signatures but concluded Holder still had 176 valid signatures, comfortably above the statutory threshold.

Mazza contends the county clerk improperly certified Holder’s petitions and argues that dozens of additional signatures should have been rejected.   His complaint alleges that 65 petition entries contain names or addresses written by the same individual rather than by the voter, and claims that Holder falsely certified that she personally witnessed genuine signatures.   Mazza is asking the court to overturn the clerk’s determination, invalidate Holder’s petitions, and prohibit her from appearing on the November ballot.

Holder has asked Deitch to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that New Jersey election law requires courts to construe ballot access laws liberally in favor of candidates and voters.  Levy contends Mazza has failed to present any competent evidence supporting the allegations that signatures were forged or improperly completed, noting that the lawsuit includes no handwriting expert testimony or affidavits from voters alleging their signatures were falsified.

She also argues that the county clerk properly exercised her statutory authority in reviewing the petitions and that courts should not substitute their judgment absent proof that the clerk acted arbitrarily.

In a separate filing, Holder’s attorney, Alan Levy, served Mazza’s attorney with a notice under New Jersey’s frivolous litigation rule, contending the lawsuit lacks any legal basis and should be withdrawn.   He maintains Mazza raised new objections after the statutory deadline for petition challenges had expired and characterizes the handwriting allegations as speculative and unsupported.

Mazza was first elected to the Elizabeth City Council in 1984 and served for twelve years.  He returned in 2006.  Mazza was unopposed in the June 2 Democratic primary.

The lawsuit was filed two weeks ago.  Today is the first hearing and can be watched at 9 AM on the judiciary website.