A Paulsboro councilman lost last week’s Democratic primary by a 3-1 margin, but he probably shouldn’t have been on the ballot at all.
Incumbent Eric Singleton was routed by another councilman, Tahje Thomas, and his running mate, Michelle Baylor. Baylor was the top vote-getter with 393 votes, followed by Thomas with 377. Singleton finished much further behind with 114.
Thomas had challenged the validity of Singleton’s nominating petition in a lawsuit that took Superior Court Judge Benjamin Telsey a month to decide, even though vote-by-mail ballots had already gone out.
The challenge was filed by Thomas on April 6, but Telsey didn’t schedule a hearing until April 17. He gave the attorneys ten days to file briefs and left three days for him to read them. When he finally held his hearing on April 30, twelve days had already passed since the VBMs were sent in the mail.
Telsey disqualified five signatures on Singleton’s petition, which brought him below the minimum 25 required on slate law to get a place on the ballot. Then he waited until May 6 to hold a hearing to figure out what to do next.
Over 300 ballots had been mailed out before Telsey could make a decision.
Thomas withdrew his lawsuit after realizing the minefield that emerged from Telsey’s ruling and the high cost it would impose on Paulsboro taxpayers.
The judge, just happy to extract himself from the tinderbox, permitted the case to be dropped. But the judiciary wasn’t able to answer a critical question: if Telsey knew Singleton didn’t meet the legal criteria to be on the ballot, why did he allow it at all?
“You either have enough signatures, or you don’t,” said one election official, who asked to remain anonymous. “Once the judge knew the petition was invalid, then that should have been the end of it. It was the judge’s call, not the plaintiff.”
Thomas and Baylor, the Gloucester County Human Services director, had the backing of the county Democratic organization, which withheld party support of Singleton’s re-election.