TOMS RIVER – Ocean County Democratic Committee members won’t have to come in person today to cast their vote for Wyatt Earp or Terrance Turnbach as the leader of their party.
Ocean County Superior Court Presiding Judge Craig L. Wellerson ruled yesterday that remote voting would be permissible at the Democratic Committee’s reorganization meeting.
Turnbach, who seeks to replace Earp as the committee chair, filed an emergent request to disallow the casting of remote votes. Two Southern Ocean County Democratic leaders joined Turnbach in saying all voting should be done in person. Toms River Democratic committee member Paul C. Williams filed a separate lawsuit on his own behalf making the same request.
The parties claimed Earp, as the present chair, and the Democratic Committee instituted the remote voting option without proper vetting of the software and process. They further compared the addition to offering a vote by mail option, which members recently voted against.
Wellerson said that while New Jersey courts have always liberally interpreted election laws, the statutes themselves were not part of the issue. Instead, the question pertained to internal procedures used by a political party.
“What we have here is an intraparty controversy,” Wellerson said. “In the absence of a violation of the controlling statute, to infringe upon the clear rights of the parties themselves, would be inappropriate.”
According to Wellerson, the Supreme Court has cautioned trial courts to avoid reading into statutes any restrictions on party organizations or procedures that don’t specifically restrict the nature of an issue that is before the court.
While Wellerson acknowledged the by-laws reference rules governing the election of officers for the organization, none were ever adopted. However, a section of the by-laws allows the current committee chairperson to make decisions.
“The by-laws authorize the chairman to make those types of determinations which have not been otherwise designated,” said Wellerson.
Another element the court must take under consideration is whether the parties have been treated unfairly or deprived in any meaningful way.
Wellerson said the parties have not suffered any substantial harm as they remain on the ballot – whether the vote is electronic or in-person.
One of the issues raised by the plaintiffs concerned establishing proof that no one was electronically voting in place of an elected committee member authorized to do so.
“Obviously, if the people who are voting electronically have to be identified visually, this could be by facial recognition presented to the challenger,” Wellerson said. “Or they could be required to present copies of some universally recognized identification that would close any reasonable inquiry into the identity of the person casting the vote.”
Wellerson retained jurisdiction and said he was ready to hear any concerns of adopted procedures that appeared inappropriate or leave the challengers with no ability to verify the remote voter’s identity.
The Ocean County Democratic Committee has until the start of voting today at 1 p.m. to come up with a suitable means of ensuring challengers can verify the identities of remote voters.
Although Ocean County Democratic Committee Chairman Wyatt Earp is individually named in the lawsuit brought by the plaintiffs, he was not at the hearing. Toms River attorney Steven Secare appeared on behalf of Earp and the committee.
Marta Harrison, Executive Director of the committee, testified on behalf of the Ocean County Democratic organization.
“Just like you can observe when someone is coming in to a voting booth, you will be able to observe when someone opens their ballot. You’ll be able to observe when someone has voted. You will receive a report regularly of the voting – giving the challengers ample opportunities to challenge the vote,” Harrison said.
Harrison said that it’s a point of honor between Democrats that they don’t require identification before people vote. She called the idea “Republican concepts.”
Up until the court hearing, challengers would be able to do everything Harrison said – except visualize the person who cast the ballot. In-person and vote by mail elections require the voter to sign their names.
The Ocean County Democratic Committee has room for approximately 830 local committee members. Of that, less than half of the districts are represented. Harrison estimated 130 people have signed up for remote voting.
“We respect the court’s decision and are thankful the court offered suggestions to improve the remote voting process and retained jurisdiction to allow us to come back before the court if those suggestions are not implemented,” Turnbach said after the hearing.
