Villains, Thieves and Whos Country IS This Anyway?

On Wednesday, September 8th, 1999, in front of the NJ Supreme Court, New Jerseys citizens may yet get an answer to that question, and whatever the outcome may not be very happy with the serious questions raised. In the 1950s and 60s we fought to keep the world free from Communism, exposing the rigged elections and despotic control of the regimes of Joe Stalin and Nikita Khruschev. We singled out their election process specifically, underscoring the fact that bogus elections undermine their entire society and would render any so called leader thus elected a fraud and expose the truth of a despotic dictatorship. In those elections, citizens were allowed to vo te, it was their civic duty, strictly enforced by part y members on election day. In the voting booths, citizens were given a choice of column A or column A. And strangely enough, the results were announced that evening, all over Russia, a 1950s country that spanned 13 time zones. . No computers, no television, not even a national phone network, and the results were never wrong! Compare that Cold War scenario to elections here in New Jersey. We hold a private election for the Democratic party and one for the Republican party on the same day each year, giving the appearance of a real election. Millions of your tax dollars are spent on a private poll and the majority of citizens arent even allowed by law to participate. Fact: A citizen registered as a Democrat or Republican cannot participate in each others primary. Neither can the majority of NJ citizens (55%) who are registered as Independent or Unaffiliated. Fact: The math is shocking. Out of NJ citizens, less than 50% are registered voters, 45% of them are Democrats and Republicans or just 22% of the citizenry. In the 1999 NJ Primary election only between 5 and 6 percent of registered Republicans and Democrats who voted in the 1997 Assembly election even bothered to show up, a mere 1% of the population! For their trouble, they were given a choice of column A or column A, and strangely enough, most of the results were known weeks in advance! Must be the advanced computers and technology here in NJ! In what is turning out to be a landmark legal case, the very question of who is allowed on the ballot is being questioned and the very definition of what a voter IS, is being weighed. In a lawsuit filed by the NJ Conservative Party, three citizen candidates, Len Marshall, Ho sey Best, Ivan Smollin, NJCP party founder Tom Blomquist and one attorney, Eugene LaVergne, they are challenging the reserved status of column A and column B on the NJ ballot that is allotted only for Democrats and Republicans.While this question goes right to the core of our democracy, the unfolding events surrounding this case tell us much more. Two weeks ago, in a Freehold courtroom, there was a stunning victory. The NJ Conservative Party represented by Mr. Blomquist & Mr. Lavergne won a decision allowing equal ballot position access, vs. the combined legal might of 21 county clerks, t he NJ state Attorneys office and the combined legal forces of the Democratic and Republican parties, totaling 31 or so legal beagles. While it was stunning, it was short lived. It was immediately appealed by all the losers and was overturned four days later. While the result was not surprising, the ho w and why is terribly illuminating. On the day of the so-called appeal, the judges that would hear the case following normal procedure and rotation, were replaced. No formal hearing took place. In a conference call between the two replacement judges and Mr. Lavergne, the lawsuit was reversed, the judges granting the reversal on the argument of what a voter IS. In a nutshell, they argued that if a voter voted for 5 candidates, that same voter should be counted as 5 separate voters for accounting purposes, and the judges agreed! Even stranger still, it was reported and apparently confirmed by a state official, that NJ republican chairman Chuck Hatayian sent out a fax to state republicans concerning the decision, hours before the decision was announced. I wonder what a Smiley Face and WE BEAT THEM! Means? Its now September 1999, the waning months of the 20th Century. Let us thank the voters of Chicagos cemeteries for electing many candidates and lets thank Bill Clinton for redefining what IS is! Boris and Natasha would be proud! May the brave Justices of the NJ Supreme Court usher in the new Millennium with a logical and fair verdict. Leonard Marshall - Plaintiff 11th District candidate for NJ State Assembly 303 Spinnaker Way, Neptune, NJ 07753 732 502-0730 September 7, 1999

Villains, Thieves and Whos Country IS This Anyway? PART 2

October 15,1999

In the Alice-In-Wonderland world of New Jerseys legal and political systems, things are never what they seem and rarely interpreted as written. A little background is in order. The NJ Conservative Party was formed in 1992 to establish an independent third party to give additional candidates a place on the ballot and to give the voters an alternative to Column A or Column B candidates. Time after time, we have found that other candidates are discriminated against by custom and more importantly, by NJ law. With 55% of NJ voters neither registered Democrats or Republicans, the MAJORITY of NJ voters are given the short end of the representation stick and have NO vo ice as to who is actually on the ballot. Under NJ election law, to become a recognized party, an unofficial party must garner 10% of the total vote cast in a NJ Assembly race. No other votes count, and this can only happen once every 2 years. It is the most restrictive law in the nation; NJ hasnt had an official third party since 1913 and is the only state not to have a third or 4th party form within the last decade! If the election process was fair, NJ voters could have various choices this November. But its NOT. Heres a partial list of some of the major differences. Primary elections: Democrats and Republicans have them, run by the state and paid for by hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars. Non-official parties have no such help or funding. The Republicans and Democrats have 2 paid committeemen at each polling district; 10,000 + each statewide, paid for by our tax dollars. Non-official parties get no assistance, committeemen or funding. Election officials, Democrats and Republican appointees only, NO independents allowed. Special Leadership PACs run by the NJ Senate and Assembly Majority and Minority leaders. A unique law passed by the Legislature in 1993 giving these four leaders an almost unlimited source of funding to use in virtually any way that they see fit. In effect, controlling their own members with these funds and having the power to shift vast sums of money to any party candidate or race. Private citizens, corporations, unofficial parties or anyone else for that matter are barred from this type of veiled extortion and would be harshly prosecuted for subverting the election process. NOTE: NJ Office of Legislative Services issued a recommendation that this law was unconstitutional, was overwhelmingly passed with a strong endorsement from both party leaders. Ballot Position: The Democrats and Republicans are given the first 2 columns or rows on ALL ballots; NJ State Law, part of Title 19. All other candidates are placed on the ballot by the individual discretion of each County Clerk. In many cases, unofficial candidates are placed in, to put it politely, inconvenient places for the voters to find. In a number of instances where electronic machines with paper ballot s were used, these unofficial candidates were actually placed on the back of the ballot, with no instructions to see the back! In addition, only the Republican and Democratic parties get labeled on the ballot. Everyone else on the ballot is lumped into the Nomination by Petition category, and limited to 3 words for an official affiliation slogan while the official two parties get 6 word slogans. But back to the court case at hand. Due to the intricacies of the NJ court system, we found ourselves back in Superior Court with Judge Fisher. Eugene LaVergne and I, at 2nd chair, Vs both Parties, legal council for all 21 counties and Donna Kelly, the Assistant St ate Attorney General. In tacit agreement with our complaint, all the defendants agreed that having the reserved ballot position IS preferential treatment and penalizes all other candidates. Looked like a clear-cut win to me but the Cheshire Cat was to strike again. Judge Fisher threw out

all the arguments of all the defendants as being without merit. Then in an apparent attempt to prevent this decision from being overturned in a higher court, ruled that even though everyone in court agreed that there was preferential treatment due to ballot position, he believed that it did not rise to the level of an unconstitutional defect in the law. By so ruling Judge Fisher did stop an immediate appeal by the combined defendants and has allowed us to appeal his ruling in an orderly and timely fashion. It prevented chaos during t he upcoming election while leaving the judicial door open to legally remedy the ongoing injustices. I believe it was the best interim solution possible and I believe it is the first judicial ruling actually decided about and during a current election, thereby keeping the issue alive after the election is long gone. Please let me know what you think. How would you rule? Yours Truly, Leonard Marshall