Court Opinion

ID: 9637192
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:00:10.025603+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:54.331552
License: Public Domain

*18CLIFFORD, J.,
dissenting in part and concurring in part.
Election laws are entitled to a liberal construction to effectuate their underlying purpose. Kilmurray v. Gilfert, 10 N.J. 435, 440, 91 A.2d 865 (1952). They should not, however, be subjected to the indignity of a liberal misconstruction as part of a well-intentioned but wholly-misguided effort to effectuate that purpose — to encourage the greatest possible participation in the political process. For me this is not a close case. The pertinent statutes, N.J.S.A. 19:23-7 and N.J.S.A 19:23-45, and administrative regulation, N.J AC. 15:10-2.1, make clear beyond question that unaffiliated voters do not qualify as “members of a political party” and therefore are not eligible to sign a candidate’s nominating petition.
N.J.S.A. 19:23-7 provides in pertinent part that a nominating petition
shall set forth that the signers thereof are qualified voters of the State, congressional district, county, or county election district, municipality, ward or election district * * * in which they reside and for which they desire to nominate candidates; that they are members of a political party (naming the same), * * * and that they intend to affiliate with that political party at the ensuing election •* ~ *, (Emphasis added).
N.J.S.A. 19:23-45 sets forth the requirements for becoming a member of a party. That statute provides that
[a] voter who votes in a primary election of a political party or who signs and files with the municipal clerk or the county commissioner of registration a declaration that he desires to vote in the primary election of a political party shall be deemed to be a member of that party until he signs and files a declaration that he desires to vote in the primary election of another political party at which time he shall be deemed to be a member of such other political party. (Emphasis added).
Therefore, as the majority must concede, “N.J.S.A. 19:23-45 * * * makes no specific provision for declaring party membership through the act of signing a candidate’s nominating petition.” Ante at 13, 626 A.2d at 1079. The statute provides for only two methods of attaining party membership: either (1) voting in a party’s primary, or (2) signing and filing an appropriate declaration with the municipal clerk or the county commissioner of registration.
Moreover, the administrative regulations promulgated to effectuate the election laws reinforce the conclusion that a person does *19not become a member of a party by signing a candidate’s nominating petition. N.J.A.C. 15:10-2.1 provides that
[a] voter becomes a member of a political party by * * *:
1. Having voted in a previous primary of that party;
2. By filing a declaration of membership in that party. That declaration must be signed and filed with the municipal clerk or appropriate county election officer no later than the 50th day preceding the primary. However, a voter who has not voted in a party primary may vote in any primary without filing any declaration.
3. By being a member of the county committee of the party of a public official holding office to which he has been elected or appointed as a member of that political party.
Simply put, no provision of the statutory or administrative law permits a person to become a member of a political party by signing a nominating petition.
Our purpose in construing a statute is to effectuate the intent of the Legislature. Merin v. Maglaki, 126 N.J. 430, 435, 599 A.2d 1256 (1992). The Legislature has nowhere approved the method of attaining party membership invented today by the Court. Furthermore, an analysis of the procedures involved in the filings of a party-declaration statement and a nominating petition demonstrates clearly that the Legislature did not intend that a nominating petition serve the other’s purpose, despite the similarity of the forms of declaration attached to each as noted by the majority. See ante at 13, 626 A.2d at 1079.
A party-declaration statement has effect only if delivered to the correct county or municipal election representative; in contrast, however, our election laws make no provision for the forwarding of a nominating petition of a candidate for statewide office from the Secretary of State’s office to those same officials. The nominating petition must be delivered to the Secretary of State by the fiftieth day preceding the election, N.J.S.A. 19:23-6, but a party-declaration statement must be delivered to the loeal officials by that same day, N.J.S.A. 19:23-45. Unless candidates are required now to deliver a copy of the petition to those local election officers, the Court must come up with some implied-delivery theory that holds that delivery to the Secretary of State satisfies the delivery *20requirement, despite the unambiguous words of the relevant statute.
As still further evidence that the Legislature did not intend that the signing of a nominating petition satisfy the requisites for party membership, the State currently has no mechanism for recording party membership by virtue of the signing of a nominating petition. At present, no office examines the nominating petitions and amends local registration records accordingly. Furthermore, the Court’s determination that signing a nominating petition for a candidate for a party makes a person a member of that party produces a gaping crevasse in the statutory framework. Under the Court’s interpretation, a person who has signed a nominating petition for a candidate has become a member of that candidate’s party even if the signer fails to vote in the ensuing primary. Why then does N.J.S.A 19:23-45 not require that person thereafter to file a declaration to change parties when it expressly requires the filing of a declaration by persons who had voted in another party’s primary or filed a declaration indicating membership in another party?
The answer, of course, is that the Legislature did not intend a signature on a candidate’s nominating petition to satisfy the requirements of a declaration of party membership. Primaries exist because parties exist, and the importance of parties lies at the core of New Jersey’s closed-primary system. Therefore, parties demand some significant demonstration of the desire to affiliate with the party before they will accept a person as a member.
The demonstration of loyalty that the Legislature has required is that a person vote in a party’s primary or sign and file an appropriate declaration. Those requirements surely are not irrational, and the formality of those activities contrasts sharply with the process for providing a signature on a nominating petition. Oftentimes a candidate’s representatives will gather signatures on the street, and many who sign a petition likely intend their signature as an expression of support for a person — not a party. *21Indeed, many unaffiliated voters may not realize that their signature on a nominating petition henceforth will be deemed to have made them members of a political party. Cherishing their political independence and “unaffiliated” status, they may very well be appalled at the prospect of being branded with a party label.
I therefore dissent from so much of the Court’s judgments in the appeals before us as hold that unaffiliated voters are eligible to sign a nominating petition.
Nevertheless, I concur in the Court’s judgment that George Daggett’s name properly appeared on the primary ballot as a candidate for the Republican nomination for Senate in the 24th district. Although Daggett’s original petition was defective, he cured that petition by timely filing Republican-party-declaration cards for several of the previously-unaffiliated voters who had signed his petition. See N.J.S.A. 19:13-13. Therefore, his petition contained a sufficient number of signatures of “party members” to render his petition valid, and his name was entitled to be included on the ballot.
Justice POLLOCK joins in this opinion.
For Modification and affirmance — Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, POLLOCK, OHERN, GARIBALDI and STEIN — 7.
Concurring in part; dissenting in part — Justices CLIFFORD and POLLOCK — 2.