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.