Sunday, September 14, 2008
NJ Democrats: Woops!
Wow, it seems that the New Jersey Democrats had some problems obeying the law recently.
First, there was the indictment of the Chairman of the Bergen County Democratic organization and the organization's counsel for public corruption.
Then there is the disclosure by the state Democrats that they forgot to have the legally required meeting to formally select its electors for Barack Obama.
State law requires political parties to hold a meeting to nominate electors within seven days of its national convention. (N.J.S.A. 19:13-15 ("In presidential years the State committee of a political party shall meet at the call of its chairman, within 1 week following the closing of the party's national convention, for the purpose of nominating candidates for electors . . . .").) The parties then have an additional week to file electors' names with the Division of Elections. Democratic Committee Executive Director Rob Angelo said the elector certification process, generally completed at the committee meeting, is now underway, although several weeks late.
Angelo doesn't think it's a big deal given that "[i]n 2004 we didn't do it until early October and that year the convention was in July."
Failing to obey New Jersey's election law doesn't seem to bother the Obama campaign either.
"We're not worried about it," said Andrew Poag, communications director for Obama's New Jersey campaign. "We have confidence that the state committee will have the electors in place in time. It's the state's responsibility and we're just gonna leave it to them."
Laws can be so annoying sometimes.
Labels: 2008 Election
