Another gray area in New Jersey election law is creating some minor confusion in Monmouth and Ocean counties, where the two county clerks made different – but not necessarily wrong – decisions in races for district delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
An Uncommitted slate of Pro-Palestine candidates filed delegate candidates in 18 of 20 delegate districts across the state, but not in two districts that include parts of Monmouth and Ocean.
In those two districts, Ocean County chose to include the Uncommitted option, which uses the “Justice for Palestine, Permanent Ceasefire Now” slogan, while Monmouth decided not to. New Jersey’s election law allows county clerks considerable discretion in designing their ballots.
If the Pro-Palestine Uncommitted slate hovers around the 15% mark statewide, which would trigger some at-large delegates, the loss of voters in part of Monmouth County could be the difference of either giving them delegates – or costing them.
Delegate District 6 includes the 9th and 11th legislative districts, and Delegate District 7 is the 10th and 30th legislative districts.
Democrats in Ocean County will have the option of voting for Joe Biden, pro-life candidate Theresa Bukovinac, the Pro-Palestine Uncommitted Slate, or to write in someone else.
But in the Monmouth portion of the districts, which affect 30 municipalities, voting for the Pro-Palestine slate won’t be an option because they didn’t file delegate candidates. Delegate candidates needed to file nominating petitions with 100 signatures for each of the 20 districts.
In those Monmouth municipalities, voters will now need to write in Uncommitted – and probably with greater specificity – to get their votes counted.
Bukovinac filed to run in the New Jersey Democratic presidential primary but has no delegate candidates. If she were to reach the 15% threshold, the Democratic State Committee would choose delegates for Bukovinac who would be committed to voting for her on the first ballot.
In some delegate districts, the Pro-Palestine Uncommitted group does not have a full slate of candidates. Should the Uncommitted win, the state party would pick the balance of the delegates, who would be free to vote for the candidate of their choice – including Biden.
Under rules adopted by New Jersey Democrats, Delegate District 6 has two males and one female seat; Delegate District 7 has two females and one female.
Uncommitted slates have popped up in Democratic presidential primaries across the U.S. with the hope of either winning some delegates or sending a message to Biden on his Israel-Hamas war policies. In Michigan, the protest Uncommitted slate won over 100,000 votes, about 13% of the total vote cast for president. That scored them two delegates.
In New Jersey, the Uncommitted slate has stated a goal of 50,000 votes statewide.
Either way, the historical results of the 2024 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary will forever carry an asterisk that, depending on how you look at it, either leaves 30 municipalities in Monmouth uncounted, or 32 Ocean County municipalities counted when they should not have been.