There’s going to be a mad dash to redraw wards for May 2022 municipal elections

The filing deadline for next May’s non-partisan municipal election is March 7, 2022 but county election officials have not started the process to redraw wards based on the 2020 U.S. Census.

That leaves incumbents and potential candidates in limbo as they plan their campaigns without knowing the boundaries of the ward.

In past decades, before a global pandemic delayed the decennial census, ward lines were redrawn during the previous fall.

While other municipalities with ward elections will come later in the year – June primaries and November general and non-partisan elections – including Newark, Trenton, Bayonne, Orange, Irvington and Belleville —  will need their map first.

Candidates will need some lead time to gather petition signatures before the March filing deadline.

Bi-partisan county Board of Elections members draw ward boundaries with the county clerk serving as the tie-breaker, if necessary.

Some election officials told the New Jersey Globe that they were frustrated by the lack of guidance they have received from the state attorney general, who serves as their counsel.

“We don’t confirm or deny — or discuss — guidance to client agencies,” said Leland Moore, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

Bob Giles, the director of the state Division of Elections, was scheduled to speak with some election officials on Wednesday morning to discuss deadlines for readjustments of the Statewide Voter Registration System in time for the May 10, 2022 non-partisan election.  The voter system will need to reflect new wards.

Atlantic City ward council races are coming up in 2023.  Republicans flipped the county clerk’s office in last month’s election, giving them control over ward boundaries in Atlantic County.

County commissioner districts in Atlantic, Essex and Hudson will need to be redrawn as well.  Atlantic has elections in 2022, but Essex and Hudson aren’t up until 2023.

Also coming up in 2022, but with a still undetermined timeline: the redrawing of voting districts that will reflect where Democratic and Republican county committee members run.

In the old days, party chairs would routinely gerrymander the homes of maverick county committee members to assure their defeat.