Replies

And the Court remaining of the view that the election statutes should be liberally construed to allow the greatest scope for public participation in the electoral process, to allow candidates to get on the ballot, to allow parties to put their candidates on the ballot, and most importantly, to allow the voters a choice on Election Day. Catania v. Haberle, 123 N.J. 438, 448;

The voters have FULL choice... it's called a write-in vote. This is about promoting one party's chances in an election by subverting the primary election results. NJ Democrats are having their choice removed from the ballot. Even if the Torch decides he doesn't want to run anymore (a curious thought considering the effort that goes in to campaigning and winning a primary election), the voters chose who they wanted, and should be allowed to continue to support that choice in the full election. The name they choose gets the special recognition of being written on the ballot. Any other name must be written in.

The Democrat leaders want this policy changed so that the name THEY prefer will be promoted above all others, not the name the people want.

Ok, you all are going to kill me but I read the statute and it's not clear that this is the wrong result. As to US Supreme Court review, more deference is given to states for US Senator elections. I doubt it will go to US Supreme Court.

If they're smart, the Republicans in charge of this will try US district court on equal protection.

But -- go ahead and accuse me of being a liberal, I'm *not* -- this actually isn't like Florida at all. In this case, the statute IS vague and the highest court in the state DOES have the right to construe it liberally (pun alert) under the applicable state law. Y'all will kill me, but I'm not going to get excited about this one. It's sufficiently solid from a legal perspective that I doubt it can be undone.

From CNN's article on this decision:

The Democrats argued there was legal precedent favoring a competitive election over the expense of developing new ballots.

All elections are competitive because of the write in and third party candidates.

Might be able to turn some libs against this decision (especially since it is happening within their party to one of their candidates). The leftist extremists are not fans of the big 2 parties; here is an example of their main party walking all over them.

I've got local Houston news on and have not heard this decision reported at all. Storm warning, Enron, murder, back to weather (then sports/entertainment). ABC top of the hour radio news ignored this as well.

Is this going to pass under the radar? I'm putting a poster of "7X Horse's ass" in my car window as I drive around. Most people won't get it, but then if anyone asks...