Freeholders, messenger ballots / No authority
Published: Friday, October 10, 2008
Ah ... county freeholders in New Jersey.So little to do, so much time for mischief.The latest: The Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders is taking it upon itself to rewrite state election laws, something the freeholders have zero authority to do.We'll let the courts sort it out, says Freeholder Joseph McDevitt.Never mind it's a virtual lock that when the courts sort it out, the result will be a smackdown of the freeholders.
This time, however, freeholders meddling where they have no authority to meddle could actually have serious consequences.The Republican-controlled freeholder board has introduced a county ordinance to limit to five the number of messenger ballots that any one person can deliver to the county clerk in an election.We understand the problem - and have called on the state Legislature to tighten requirements regarding messenger ballots, which are absentee ballots delivered by hand by someone other than the voter when the voter is sick or confined. Unfortunately, the Assembly has gone in the other direction, approving a measure that would even let candidates serve as messengers.Elections in Atlantic County have turned on messenger ballots. Atlantic City Democrats are particularly adept at misusing the process; quite often, one messenger will deliver hundreds of absentee ballots, all of which miraculously cast votes for the same person.We have said that a five-ballot limit is a good place to start. Even better (although costly) would be to allow only county election workers - one from each party, working in pairs - to serve as messengers. This would establish a clear chain of custody for absentee ballots and safeguard the process.So we get the problem. And we understand the freeholders' frustration. But a futile and illegal gesture is not the way to attempt to solve it. As a spokesman for the state Department of Law and Public Safety has noted, changes to the state's election statutes are "totally outside of the jurisdiction of freeholders."But let's say the freeholders do pass this measure limiting messengers to five ballots, and county election officials actually enforce it. Now let's say that an election is challenged in court by the loser, who was defeated by only a handful of votes. It is not inconceivable that a judge would find it necessary to throw out the entire election because it was tainted by an illegal county ordinance.What a mess that would be.State law on messenger ballots needs to be changed. But the Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders has no authority to do that. And approving this ordinance is irresponsible.
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