In voter disenfranchisement hearings involving four judges in three vicinages today, three allowed voters to cast ballots in Tuesday’s election, while another two said no.
A recently naturalized U.S. citizen has lost her newly acquired right to vote after a judge determined that she wouldn’t be permitted to cast a ballot this year because she moved from Essex County to Bergen County and never re-registered to vote.
“I was not aware this is a requirement,” the woman told Superior Court Judge Kelly Conlon. “I just became a citizen last year, so all of this is a little new to me. I was under the impression that once you register in the state, you’re good to go. This was a bit of a surprise and a shock to me that I had to do it.”
The woman moved on August 1 and needed to change her address by October 14.
Conlon said she is “permitted no latitude to extend the statutory time frame.”
On voting rights issues, Conlon is a bit of a hardliner. Last year, she turned down most attempts by voters to challenge their disenfranchisement, including instances where matters related to the embattled Motor Vehicles Commission were involved.
Deputy Attorney General Bao Ngo, representing the Bergen County Superintendent of Elections, actively opposed allowing the woman to vote.
“That’s why we have deadlines,” she said.
If you’ve seen one judge, you’ve seen one judge
A college student from Somerset County will be permitted to vote after testifying that she tried to change her address online with her driver’s license number and social security number weeks before the deadline, but the state’s voter registration system locked her out.
Superior Court Judge William G. Mennen IV found the woman’s testimony to be credible, saying she had the “requisite intent to register to vote and register to vote in a timely manner.”
She will vote by machine.
A woman who moved from Middlesex County to Morris County will be able to vote despite missing the October 14 deadline after Superior Court Judge Vijayant Pawar decided to consider the voter’s extenuating circumstances.
Pawar said the vote should be cast via a provisional ballot and ordered the vote counted.
Deputy Attorney General Jessica Palmer stated that her client, the Morris County Board of Elections, took no position on the matter but still weighed in against it.
“The deadline is the deadline,” Palmer stated.
A Somerset County woman who recently moved from Middlesex County will be able to vote by provisional ballot after Superior Court Judge Patrick Heller refused to permit her disenfranchisement.
Deputy Attorney General Wendy Leggett Faulk said the Somerset County Board of Elections found no record of the voter’s local voter registration or change of address.
“Notwithstanding these facts, the board takes no position on the request for equitable relief and leaves it to the court to determine whether the voter should be eligible to vote,” Leggett Faulk said.
Two of the judges who sided with voters have both run for office. Mennen, a Republican, was a Tewksbury township committeeman and Hunterdon County freeholder. Pawar was 27-years-old when he challenged Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding) in New Jersey’s 11th district in 2002. He later won a seat on the school board in Morristown.
The New Jersey Globe withholds the names of voters who appear before judges to protect their privacy.
Voters who feel they are being wrongfully disenfranchised have the right to make their case to a judge. This can be done remotely and arranged through the county Board of Elections.
