On July 21, a New Jersey state trial court ruled that the “sore loser” law even applies to write-in candidates in primaries. Joseph Abutel had been a write-in candidate in the June 2022 primary for Township Committee in Colts Neck. He did not win the primary but filed a petition to be on the November ballot as an independent candidate. But the judge ruled that the sore loser law applies to write-in primary candidates, and said he is not eligible to be an independent candidate.

New Jersey does not have a law pertaining to write-in candidates filing a write-in declaration of candidacy. There is no official list of write-in candidates in either primaries or general elections. Therefore, if this ruling is upheld, in the future, anyone who tries to be an independent candidate in November, but who received write-in votes in a primary, is at risk of being disqualified. See this story.

A group of Republican and Democratic U.S. Senators have released this draft of a proposed bill, to amend the 1887 Electoral Vote Count Act, relating to procedures when Congress counts the electoral votes. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.

On July 20, the Moderate Party of New Jersey filed a lawsuit in the State Appeals Court, asking that the ban on fusion be struck down based on the New Jersey Constitution. The party is asking the appellate court to send the lawsuit to the State Supreme Court. See this story. UPDATE: here is the brief in In re Petition Filed by Moderate Party. The case is Moderate Party v Way, A-3542-21.