Turnout so low for NJ primary voters that both democrats and republicans may lose ballot label

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

From “Opening Brief Filed in New Jersey Case on Whether Republican and Democratic Primary Turnout was So Low, Those Parties Should Have Lost Party Columns” by Eric Garris of Ballot Access News:

On March 9, the opening brief was filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, in D-R Organization of New Jersey v Guadagno, A-206-14. This case was filed in the trial court in August, 2014, but the courts ruled that it should have been filed directly in the Appellate Division, so now that is where it is.

The issue is the proper interpretation of election law 19:5-1, which says, in part, “no political party which fails to poll at any primary election at least 10% of the votes cast in the State for members of the General Assembly at the last general election, held for the election of all members of the General Assembly, shall be entitled to have a party column on the official ballot at the general election for which the primary election has been held.”

In June 2014, the turnout in both major parties was so low that neither party had enough voters in its primary to satisfy the law. However, New Jersey election officials gave both major parties their own party column anyway. Check back in a day or two to read the brief. The plaintiff, the D-R Organization, is a minor party that exists only in New Jersey. It listed many candidates on the general election ballot last year, and expects to have even more in this year’s election for state legislature. New Jersey elects its state officers in odd years.

Why is turnout at rock bottom in the Garden State? An article by Kelly Waldron on radio station NJ 101.5 called Why is voter turnout so low in NJ? explored this very question, and it included one expert that explained:

“We’ve seen a race for Governor with Chris Christie trouncing state Senator Barbara Buono and everyone knew who was going to win from the very beginning. We also had a race between Jeff Bell and incumbent Cory Booker. Everyone knew Booker was going to win. So, there wasn’t any incentive in these top of the ticket races and that’s probably one of the biggest reasons people aren’t voting,” said Ben Dworkin, political science professor at Rider University and director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics.

It is also very expensive to run a statewide campaign in New Jersey where candidates have to advertise on network television stations based in New York City and Philadelphia, which are two of the most expensive media markets in the country. “So, rather than invest $25 million in a race that is an uphill battle against a popular incumbent like Cory Booker, the parties are instead conceding the race and whatever money they raise, they put into other races where they think they can win and will have the best chance at protecting their incumbents from a threat,” Dworkin said.