A tone-deaf Superior Court Judge, John Deitch, has scheduled a hearing for October 3 to first consider a lawsuit filed by a Hillside municipal candidate running in the November 4 general election, even though vote-by-mail ballots are scheduled to go out on September 20.
Sonya McBurrows, seeking an at-large council seat on a ticket with Mayor Dahlia Vertreese, was tossed from the ballot on August 27 after Township Clerk Rayna Harris invalidated 37 petition signatures that left her nine short of the required 250.
Jason Sena, a top election lawyer representing McBurrows, filed an emergent application to the court on September 2, challenging the clerk’s decision and seeking to stop the printing and mailing of ballots until the matter is heard.
Deitch has not responded to a September 4 letter from Sena saying that October 3 is too late and that an application for a preliminary injunction is “inherently emergent and, as such, are statutorily required to be decided on an expedited timeframe.”
“The case would be moot due to the passage of time,” Sena told Deitch.
Right now, McBurrows is off the ballot. By pushing a court hearing until October 3 – a potentially absurd decision — and without the ability to challenge the clerk’s decision, Deitch has essentially ended McBurrows’ campaign.
On September 3, Union County Counsel Bruce Bergen advised Deitch on the record that the county clerk needed to send ballots to the printer by September 11 to meet the statutory deadline. Deitch ordered the county to hold just one municipality, Roselle, and didn’t address the Hillside lawsuit.
In a lawsuit, Sena said Harris disqualified eleven eligible signatories for McBurrows, one of eight candidates for three at-large seats. He claims the Harris failed to provide written notice that an objection to her petition had been filed, “depriving her of notice and an opportunity to be heard.” State law requires such notice to be provided.
Hillside holds non-partisan municipal elections in November. The filing deadline was August 21, and the deadline to determine a petition challenge was August 30, the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.
Pete McAleer, a spokesman for the judiciary, did not respond to an email seeking comment on Sunday. Deitch, who is tenured and does not face mandatory retirement until 2039, was copied on the email; he did not respond.
Deitch is the judge who denied a recount in a June 10 Democratic primary for Roselle Borough Council that was decided by three votes. A state appellate court panel reversed his decision, and the margin was slimmed to two votes after an August 4 recount; Deitch didn’t hold a hearing on a lawsuit challenging the election until September 3, and still hasn’t ruled.
Last year, a Superior Court Judge, also in Union County, may have inadvertently interfered with a mayoral election in Clark because she couldn’t squeeze Clark Mayor Sal Bonaccorso’s guilty plea onto her calendar before the November 5 general election – a move that might have affected his re-election bid.
