A ballot draw for non-partisan municipal elections in Orange will get a do-over tomorrow after a Superior Court Judge found allegations that City Clerk Joyce Lanier rigged the draw to be credible and in violation of state law.
Quantavia Hilbert, a city councilwoman running for mayor, challenged the March 22 draw after allegations that the dimensions of a slip of paper with the incumbent’s name, Mayor Dwayne Warren, didn’t match other candidates.
After Hilbert’s attorneys, Scott Salmon and Thomas Jardim, sent a letter to Lanier advising her on statutory obligations of a fair draw and notifying her that they intended to create a video recording of the event.
But before the drawing commenced, Aaron Mizrahi, the deputy city attorney for Orange, “went up to the city clerk and whispered something in her ear. He then walked away, and as he did so, the city clerk stated that she has been informed that the members of the public present to observe were not allowed to record any video of the event,” court records show.
Mizrahi, who was also Warren’s partner in a private law practice, said the mayor had issued an executive order banning filming in the council chamber, Hilbert’s attorneys said in their filing.
According to Hilbert’s filing, no executive order prohibiting filming exists, and Mizrahi “threatened to call the police if counsel refused to stop filming and accused them of breaking the law.
“Just as the city clerk began spinning the rotating drum for the first selection, Mizrahi physically assaulted counsel for Hilbert by grabbing his cell phone out of his hand and slamming it on the table next to them. As the deputy city clerk pulled the first name out of the drum, Mizrahi intentionally walked in front of counsel to obstruct their view of the proceedings.”
Hilbert alleged that when the deputy city clerk “reached into the uncovered drum to pull out the first name, she spent about three seconds with her hand in the drum attempting to grab a piece of paper.”
“ At the same time, the city clerk was looking straight down into the opening of the drum. After three seconds, the city clerk leaned over to the deputy city clerk, whispered something, and the deputy city clerk pulled a slip of paper out of the drum,” her filing stated. “When the deputy city clerk reached into the drum to select the next name, the city clerk looked away from the drum and physically leaned away from both the drum and the deputy city clerk, the exact opposite movement she had done when Warren’s name was drawn.”
It was also alleged that “while the slips of paper appear to have been taken from a pre-perforated sheet of paper to ensure the same perfectly rectangular size, the slip of paper containing Warren’s name appears to have been cut at an angle on the top left corner, which would give it a physically distinguishing characteristic noticeable at the touch of the deputy city clerk.”
“By not covering the drum, the city clerk ensured that she would be able to look down at the ballots to make sure Warren’s slip was selected first,” Salmon and Jardim claimed.
Superior Court Judge Robert Gardner found that Lanier “improperly and unlawfully” conducted the ballot draw and found the ban on filming to be in violation of U.S. and New Jersey Constitutions.
Gardner also permanently enjoined any Orange elected official or city employee from banning the taking of photographs or videos in any public area of city hall.
The new drawing is set for tomorrow afternoon.
Warren had received Line A three times since he first ran for mayor in 2012.
New Jersey Globe Editor David Wildstein, who wrote this story, was a plaintiff in a 1984 lawsuit alleging that then-Essex County Clerk Nicholas V. Caputo, “The Man with the Golden Arm,” rigged the drawing since the odds of picking Line A for his candidate 40 out of 41 times was 50 billion-to-1. That lawsuit made its way to the New Jersey Supreme Court.