On June 4, an attorney for the Socialist Party of New Jersey sent a letter to the New Jersey Division of Elections, asking that the state permit voters to register as members of the Socialist Party on voter registration forms.

In 2001, a New Jersey state court ruled that the old policy, of refusing to let voters register into any party unless it met the state’s restrictive definition of “political party”, violates the U.S. Constitution. In response, the New Jersey Elections Division started letting people register as members of the five qualified parties that brought the lawsuit. They were the Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law and Reform Parties. Ever since, voters have been permitted to register into those parties.

In 2007, the Conservative Party sued for the same right, and the state gave in and let voters register into the Conservative Party. But the state has never changed its election law, nor issued any regulations, giving neutral rules on which unqualified parties may enjoy this opportunity, or even any rules on how such an unqualified party may request it.

The Socialist Party clearly has the same characteristics of the other parties that already have registration rights. The party appeared on the statewide ballot in 2006, 2008, and 2009. This year there are no statewide offices up in New Jersey.