Terence T. McDonald, editor of the New Jersey Monitor, here scolds the New Jersey legislature for making the petition requirement increase effective immediately, after petitions for the 2025 state election had already started to circulate.

McDonald doesn’t discuss the effect of the petition change on minor parties. No New Jersey general news source has pointed out in recent years that the New Jersey definition of a qualified party is so strict, no group other than the Democratic and Republican Parties has complied with it since it was created in 1920. So although it is true that the general election petition requirements for independents and the nominees of unqualified parties are still relatively low, the coverage isn’t balanced.