Candidate accuses Essex County clerk of rigging ballot placement to favor Democrats

A local GOP leader — and candidate for Richard Codey’s state Senate seat — has accused Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin of rigging ballot drawings to favor Democrats nearly every November since he took office in 2006.

In court filings, plaintiff Michael Byrne, who chairs the Montclair Republican County Committee, alleges Durkin consistently drew the Democratic Party for the top row on Essex County ballots, a process decided in a blind lottery each year, but noted that Republicans conveniently won the more favorable position after the lawsuit was launched.

“For seventeen years straight, the Democrats in Essex County have improbably enjoyed preferential ballot placement in the general election,” Byrne states in his complaint.

Where does the case stand?

Superior Court Judge Robert H. Gardner denied Byrne’s separate request to delay the Aug. 14 ballot drawing in Essex County, which Durkin said proved that the judge found the “accusations to be baseless and without merit,” though Gardner has not dismissed the lawsuit, which remains pending.

Although Byrne lacks hard evidence of any fraud, he possesses an archive of every sample ballot he has received as a registered voter in Montclair dating back before Durkin ― a Democrat ― was first elected to the Essex County’s Clerk’s Office.

Copies of all November ballots from 2006 through 2022, which Byrne submitted to the court, show the Democratic candidates on “Line A” without fail. Byrne derides the pattern as “a statistical impossibility,” calling the chances absurd.

NorthJersey.com and The Record have filed a public records request for the same ballots dating back to 2008, which remained pending as of Tuesday night.

Ballot position drawing

On Aug. 14, Durkin drew ballot positions for this year’s election and, to quell concern, invited Byrne and his attorney to attend.

Video footage of the drawing shows Durkin place small capsules containing slips of paper with the two parties' names into a wooden tumbler. He spins the barrel four times before lifting the apparatus above his head and shakes it side to side. When the pill-shaped capsules are heard settling inside, Durkin reaches back in and removes the capsule that placed Republicans at the top of Essex County’s ballot for the first time in nearly two decades.

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But the triumph only fueled Byrne’s suspicion. Days later, he filed a certification alleging the sudden turn toward Republicans’ favor proves Durkin uses “manipulated” capsules for each party that “distinguish” one from the other, suggesting the drawing was once again predetermined and Durkin knowingly chose the Republican capsule to placate his accuser.

Byrne ― a conservative figure in Montclair who has never held public office ― ran a successful primary write-in campaign to take on Codey, D-Livingston, before the longtime Democratic lawmaker and former governor announced his retirement and exit from the November race.

Meanwhile, officials from Codey's party have until the end of the month to choose a candidate to replace him.

Other NJ ballot disputes

Byrne is not the first to rebuke how candidates are arranged on New Jersey’s ballots. The Bergen County Republican Organization was hit by an alleged patronage scandal last year when leaked text messages appeared to show a Republican political operative offering better placement to then-congressional candidate Frank Pallotta if he donated as much as $37,000 to the Bergen GOP.

Unlike Byrne’s claims, the controversy called 19 counties into question and left a stain on both sides of the aisle.

New Jersey is the only U.S. state that groups primary candidates endorsed by their party’s county committee in the same column, known as the “county line,” Rutgers University professor Julia Sass Rubin told The Record when the scandal broke.

Candidates without the endorsement are scattershot across other columns, where they may be less noticeable to primary voters, in what is derisively called “ballot Siberia."

A lawsuit to end the practice is currently being heard in federal court.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Essex County clerk accused of rigging election ballot lottery