A young Ocean County man will be permitted to vote despite local election officials rejecting his registration because he forgot to check a box confirming his U.S. citizenship on a change-of-address form.
Superior Court Judge Anthony Merlino took less than five minutes to order the voter’s enfranchisement; the man said he was born in another state but has lived in Ocean County for many years.
“Our job should be to maximize voter participation,” said Merlino, who noted that he wasn’t going to allow a minor error to cause the man not to vote in the 2025 election.
Deputy Attorney General Andrew Matlack, seemingly reading from a script, told Merlino that the Ocean man was ineligible to vote because he missed the October 14 deadline and that the Board of Elections had no discretion in the matter. Then Matlack said the board had taken no position on the voter’s application.
Merlino, who became a judge earlier this year, has a bit of election law pedigree: he was a law clerk to New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Poritz in the fall of 2002 during one of the biggest election cases in New Jersey history.
U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli had withdrawn from the race in late September, after some absentee ballots had already been cast, and the top court approved Frank Lautenberg as a replacement candidate even though the statutory deadline had passed.
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.
