MORRIS COUNTY — Passaic County Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela has ruled that the Morris County practice of allowing political parties to decide how many signatures are needed to run for county committee is illegal, but will allow candidates to run this year, since fault for the deficiencies with their petitions were caused by bad advice from the Morris County Clerk’s office.
The ruling made by Passaic County Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela is a blow to a long-standing Morris County practice of allowing political parties to set the number of signatures needed to appear on the ballot as a candidate for county committee.
Since 1994, the Morris County clerk has allowed Republican candidates for county committee to appear on the ballot with five signatures, while requiring one for Democratic candidates.
The county committees voted to have candidates require their respective number of signatures in 1994, and the county clerk’s office has abided by those decisions ever since. On December 8, 2017, Laura Roberts, the elections manager at the Morris County Clerk’s office, sent a memo advising local clerks in the county of the now-illegal policy.
In his ruling, Caposela said that Morris County Clerk Ann Grossi “administered a memorandum that runs counter to the relevant state statutes.”
“The error was not the fault of the prospective candidates,” Caposela ruled in his opinion.
Democrats have not won a race for Morris County Clerk since before the Civil War, but a judge’s ruling yesterday that Ann Grossi did not understand state election law has now become an issue in her bid for re-election to a second term this fall.
Chatham attorney Shala Gagliardi, the Democratic candidate for county clerk, is criticizing Grossi for her decision to follow the instructions of a former Morris County Republican Chairman on county committee petitions rather than obey the easy-to-understand statute that twenty other counties use.
“Ensuring the integrity of our election process is one of the most important duties of the County Clerk. The people of Morris County trusted our clerk to be an effective steward of our elections,” said Gagliardi.
Grossi’s mistake has already brought back a statement she made while seeking a pay raise that she is “overqualified to run” the county clerk’s office because she is an attorney.
“The people of Morris County should be concerned about the fact that a clear state statute governing our elections has been ignored under Clerk Grossi’s watch,” Gagliardi said. “This raises questions about whether any other election laws have also been neglected or overlooked.”
Laura Roberts, Elections Manager, Morris County Clerk’s Office, sent the following email to all municipal clerks, including Parsippany’s Municipal Clerk, Khaled Madin. Parsippany has 39 voting districts, each one allowing a male and female candidate. Based on a male and a female in each district that would make a maximum of 78 Republican candidates and a maximum of 78 Democrat candidates. Most of the candidates were advised that Republicans needed only five signatures each on their ballots, while Democrats only need one signature each on their ballot.
In submitting the petitions to the Township Clerk most candidates followed the advice of Laura Roberts obtaining only five signatures for Republicans and one signature for Democrats, thus not qualifying under state statute as a candidate for the county committee.
Parsippany residents will be voting for members of the county committee in the June primary.
