A New Jersey state trial court will hear oral arguments on August 17 in a case over whether an independent candidate can be disqualified just because he received some write-in votes in a major party primary.  See this story.

New Jersey is one of the few states that allows write-in votes, yet doesn’t have a procedure for a write-in declaration of candidacy.  If New Jersey did have such a procedure, this type of lawsuit would not arise.  The candidate is running for Brielle Borough Council, a partisan office.  He argues that if an independent candidate is considered a “sore loser” just because people cast a write-in ballot for him in a party primary, no candidate would be safe.  The candidate’s enemies could cast write-in votes for the candidate to sabotage him.