A new political party named the Democratic-Republican Party was formed in New Jersey earlier this year. It successfully petitioned to place a U.S. Senate nominee, two U.S. House nominees, and four nominees for county office, on the ballot. However, the state refuses to place the party name of these candidates on the November ballot. Instead, the state says they will have the label “No slogan” printed on the ballot next to their names.
The party sued, but on October 10, a U.S. District Court Judge refused injunctive relief. The case is Democratic-Republican Party v Guidagno, 3:12-cv-5658.
The state says voters would be confused if a party with that name were permitted on the ballot. However, almost all New Jersey counties use a party column ballot, in which the Democratic nominees are all in one column headed by “Democratic”; Republican nominees are treated the same; and all other candidates are squeezed into columns headed “By petition.” New Jersey defines “political party” to be a group that polled 10% of the statewide vote for its nominees for lower house of the legislature. This definition has been in place since 1920 and since then no party other than the Democratic or Republican Parties has ever enjoyed status as a “political party.” Given that all the major party nominees are in their own party columns, it is extremely unlikely that any voter would be confused with the label (in tiny print) next to the names of the party’s candidates, since they are all in the “By petition” column.
The party’s nominee for U.S. Senate is Eugene LaVergne. Its U.S. House nominees are Fred LaVergne in the 3rd district, and Leonard Marshall in the 4th district. The party has two freeholder candidates in Burlington County and also two in Ocean County.
Is this party in the spirit of the Democratic-Republican Party as founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1791?
See Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic-Republican_Party) for information about the original Democratic-Republican Party.
Given that there are roughly 10 columns on the ballot this year (the candidates are spread horizontally), it seems illogical that people would become confused when voting.
Despite the fact that the state will not recognize parties unless the meet the 10% rule for the purposes of ballot access, New Jersey allows its citizens to register for minor parties. The Conservative Party, Green Party, Natural Law Party, Reform Party, Libertarian Party, and Constitution Party are choices on the states party declaration form. However if you register for any of those parties you lose the right to vote in the primary elections. http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/form_pdf/party-affiliation-form-062011.pdf
The state’s voter registration forms simply list a space where one can write in any party that they are registering for. A bit inconsistant with the party declaration form.
http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/form_pdf/voter-regis-forms/statewide-voter-reg-form-062212.pdf
#3, good point. I have urged the Democratic-Republican Party to seek the ability to let voters register into their party. Under two previous court decisions in New Jersey, groups that successfully place candidates on the November ballot may then force the state to tally their registrations.