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Office-block ballots arrived in Cumberland County earlier this month. Two weeks later, they’re gone.
The Cumberland’s Clerk’s office unveiled an initial ballot earlier this month, but the design garnered controversy for two reasons—the transition to an office-block format, and the complete randomization of the drawing instead of featuring the two major parties at the top of each box.
Friday’s redraw showed a retreat on both issues: The party-line ballot has returned, and the GOP and Democratic Party are columns A and B, respectively.
The Cumberland GOP filed suit against the Democratic-controlled Clerk’s office early last week, and the clerk quickly signaled it would redraw the ballot positioning. But until the unveiling of Friday’s ballot, it was unclear whether it would revert to the party line.
Deputy County Clerk Sandra Olbrich—who is officially in charge of election matters this year, since County Clerk Celeste Riley is on the ballot and has recused herself—led the drawing.
State Sen. Michael Testa (R-Vineland) attended the drawing, and he said he was glad the Clerk’s office reverted to the party-line format.
“I’m confident at this point in time that the people, the electorate, will not be confused,” Testa said. “I think they would absolutely be confused by the original style that was attempted to be imposed upon us for the first time ever, that office-block style ballot.”
The Friday drawing was not completely smooth sailing, though. Republican attendees criticized an apparent new rule that barred filming and photography during the drawing. Testa said that while no-photography rules make sense in courtroom settings when protected identities could be at risk, he thought such a rule should not be in place for a ballot drawing.
Clerk’s office employees said before the drawing that their lawyer advised the implementation of the rule.
“I question the validity of any internal rule of such, but as far as the ballot draw is concerned, we couldn’t have asked for a better result,” Testa said.
