Gloucester County Republicans are appealing last week’s ruling that allows the county clerk to continue using an illegal ballot design to avoid voter confusion.
The Republicans want an immediate injunction and an order that County Clerk James Hogan prepare legal ballots with columns, not office blocks, for in-person early voting and Election Day on machines.
“There is sufficient time to program the in-person machines with a lawful ballot design before October 25, but only if the court acts immediately,” said Josiah Contarino, the attorney for the GOP candidates and county organization.
Superior Court Judge Benjamin Telsey found that Hogan, a Democrat, designed a ballot that violated state law, but determined that with thousands of vote-by-mail ballots already sent out, a change to a legal ballot design could confuse voters.
“This new format is confusing to voters and denies parties their designated columns,” Contarino said in his emergent appeal.
Contarino said there was “uncontroverted evidence” that Hogan could “easily and timely” return to the legal ballot format before early voting begins on October 25. He said that could be done with “a few keystrokes on a computer using the election software, and the reformatting would take no more than one day.”
“The Superior Court had no evidence before it indicating that the defendants would be unable to reformat in-person ballots before October 25, Contarino argued.
Despite the urgency, the Gloucester County Counsel didn’t provide Telsey with a copy of a proposed order until today. A transcript of the proceedings won’t be available until tomorrow.
According to Contarino, the court hearing ended around 12:30 PM on Friday, and he mailed Telsey’s chambers at 1:30 PM with a request for the order that denied injunctive relief.
“I also called chambers at 4:17 PM and left a message seeking the order. After hours, I also filed a letter reiterating the request for the denial order,” Contarino noted in his filing. “Plaintiffs request that this court grant emergency appellate review pending issuance of a written court order because time is of the essence.”
Contarino told the appellate division that he wasn’t seeking a stay of Telsey’s order.
“A stay will do nothing because plaintiffs were seeking an injunction below to stop the illegal ballots,” he said.
