County Clerk Confirms Election Petition Invalid

UPDATE: Chris Durkin tells Baristanet that Byrne was correct about an insufficient number of signatures and the petition will be decertified by Linda Wanat. More to come.

Ater questioning the validity of the petition for a public vote on the question of moving the Montclair elections earlier this week, Michael Byrne has sent another letter today to the Montclair town clerk, Linda Wanat, with new concerns. But is it too late? The Montclair Times is reporting a victory for Mayor Fried and Councilors Weller-Demming and Lewis, with word that Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin intends to put the question on the ballot for November.

Dear Ms. Wanat,

As you may know, I have expressed a number of concerns related to the recently circulated petition. Among them, the Mayor’s willingness to violate his obligations to Township Council which he chairs, his and other council members’ conflicting responsibilities to the legally constituted “Committee of the Petitioners,” and the failure of the Council to receive a certified petition before scheduling a public hearing.

In addition, other Councilors raised new concerns at their September 6 public meeting related to the Mayor’s demonstrated attempt to target township, board of education, and library employees and board members for support of his petition as well as the Township Attorney’s willingness to advise the minority of the Council despite the clear intent of the Council majority.

However, in recent days I have become even more concerned that there did not appear to be a formal certification of the petition at the Council meeting on September 6, per NJSA 40:69A-187.

Now, further research has revealed that the reason for this may be that the “Committee of Petitioners” did not collect enough signatures to qualify the petition for the ballot in the first place despite the alleged strong-arm and legally dubious tactics employed by the Mayor and his supporters.

Throughout this process, the Mayor has repeatedly stated that 1,160 certified signatures were needed to qualify the measure for the ballot. However, state law provides that a petition for an “initiated ordinance” must be signed by at least 10% of the total votes cast in the municipality at the last election at which members of the General Assembly were elected. (See PDF of the relevant portion of State law attached).

Now, the last general election for State Assembly was the 2009 election. According to the results of that election posted on the Township’s website and elsewhere, 12,838 votes were cast in the 2009 election — https://www.montclairnjusa.org/dmdocuments/Election_Breakdown.pdf Accordingly, a minimum of 1,284 signatures were required to qualify this initiative for consideration by the Council and possible subsequent consideration by the people on the November 8 ballot. However, I have been told emails from your office indicated that the Mayor and his supporters only submitted 1,180 signatures – over 100 fewer signatures than the law requires. In either case, the petition is insufficient under state law and does not qualify for consideration by the Township Council.

Michael D. Byrne