Partially caving to litigation from local Republicans, the Cumberland County Clerk’s office has decided to conduct a new ballot draw on Friday for the November general election, but whether or not the county’s new office-block ballot style will remain in place is still undetermined.
The clerk’s office made the unexpected decision this year to switch from a party-line ballot design, in which all candidates from the same party are listed in a shared row or column, to an office-block style where the ballot is organized by position. Election adminstrators also chose to conduct random drawings for the order of candidates in each office with third parties and independents included, contrary to the standard practice of giving Democrats and Republicans the top two slots across the board.
In a lawsuit filed over the weekend, the Cumberland County Republican organization argued that the clerk’s office had broken state law, which dictates that general election ballots be organized by column and that the two major parties get top positioning. The lawsuit demanded that a new ballot draw be conducted and that the previous party-line ballot design be reinstated.
On Friday, August 30 at 3 p.m., the clerk’s office will do the former, with the Democratic and Republican tickets now guaranteed to get the top two spots. But Deputy County Clerk Sandra Olbrich – who is officially in charge of election matters this year, since County Clerk Celeste Riley is on the ballot and has recused herself – said the office has not yet decided whether it will keep the office-block style in place.
“We do not know what style of ballot we’re going with,” Olbrich told the New Jersey Globe. “We don’t know if we’re keeping with the block style, or if we’re going with the rows and columns… If you have a block style, your ballot is smaller than if you go with rows and columns, so your cost is a lot less expensive.”
Olbrich said she will likely know how the ballot will be designed by Thursday.
The original draw was conducted on August 12 and produced a somewhat chaotic ballot, with the top position going to third-party candidates for president and U.S. Senate; Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) for U.S. House; Riley, a Democrat, for re-election as county clerk; and one Democrat and one Republican for two county commissioner seats.
With a second draw now scheduled, it remains to be seen whether Cumberland Republicans will be satisfied with the clerk’s office’s concessions; they themselves may not know until they see the results of the draw. Several of the arguments made in their lawsuit specifically reference issues with the office-block ballot design, saying that it would create voter confusion and impede the associational rights of candidates, so a new ballot draw alone may not be enough to end the litigation.
Salem and Sussex Counties, though, have long used office-block ballots in general elections with few issues; the main aspect that had set Cumberland County apart was the choice to conduct fully randomized ballot drawings, and that will soon be rectified.
Much of the GOP’s ire has been specifically directed at Riley, whom Republicans claim has used the powers of her office to boost her own political fortunes.
“We often hear from Democrats who constantly complain about threats to democracy,” State Sen. Michael Testa (R-Vineland), the Cumberland GOP chairman, said in a statement this morning. “Well, the threat has reached our backyard, and those same folks should join with Republicans in denouncing Riley’s desperate, duplicitous, and deceitful tactics. Cumberland County taxpayers deserve better.”