Late last week, New Jersey state Sen. Brian Stack (D-33rd, Union City) introduced legislation -- S 4445 -- to push back the primary in the Garden state by a week.
The impetus for the bill's introduction is the conflict between the early voting period for the state's June consolidated primary and the Memorial Day holiday. Stack's reasoning, according to the New Jersey Globe, was simple enough...
"This year, the June 2 primary triggered in-person early voting to begin on the day after Memorial Day. Stack wants some daylight between the holiday weekend and the start of the six-day early voting period.“'The whole purpose of six days of early voting in the primary is to increase voter turnout,' Stack said. 'Starting right after Memorial Day really crimps the turnout. It defeats the purpose.'"Some election officials noted that being closed on the day before the first day of early voting creates obstacles to early voting, including confirming board workers and delivering machines."
The fix in S 4445?
Shift the primary back a week from the Tuesday after the first Monday in June to the Tuesday after the second Monday in June. That would push the beginning of the early voting period (and preparation for it) out of conflict with Memorial Day in late May.
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Noteworthy: Now, this is not an example of frontloading. Quite the contrary, actually. If this bill is enacted, then New Jersey would be backloading the consolidated primary (including the presidential primary) about as far as it could be without penalty under national party rules. ...under most circumstances.
Let's consider 2028. Under the provisions of this measure, the New Jersey primary would fall on June 13, the Tuesday after the second Monday in June.
The last date on which a primary or caucus can be held under Democratic National Committee delegate selection rules is the second Tuesday in June. That would be June 13 in 2028, the last possible date on the Democratic presidential primary calendar.
On the Republican side, things are a touch more complicated because Republican National Committee rules provide two (conditional) last dates for the primary calendar. The last date on which primaries and caucuses can be conducted under Republican rules is either the second Saturday in June or less than 45 days before the start of the national convention. June 13, 2028 would be fine for New Jersey Republicans under the former. The second Saturday in June is June 17 in 2028. And while the date of the 2028 Republican National Convention is unknown at this time, following established norms where the party in the White House holds the later of the two major party conventions, a June 13 date would likely be outside of the 45 day window established by the RNC rules.
So June 13 looks okay for New Jersey in 2028.
But fast forward four years to 2032 when June begins on a Tuesday. That puts the Tuesday after the second Monday of June on June 15, a date after both the second Tuesday in June (June 8) described in DNC rules and the second Saturday in June (June 12) from the RNC guidelines. It would mean at least a 50 percent reduction to the Democratic delegation from the Garden state and the super penalty for New Jersey's Republican delegation (reduction to 12 total delegates).
Of course, Sen. Stack, again according to the Globe, has anticipated that possible conflict. "But Stack also acknowledged that New Jersey’s hands might be tied in presidential elections since national party rules require delegates to be selected by a certain date. He said he has no intention of diminishing the state’s role in the presidential nomination process and is willing to amend his bill to exempt presidential primaries if necessary."
But what that exemption would look like for a presidential primary is unknown. Would it still be held on the current date -- the Tuesday after the first Monday in June -- and in conflict with Memorial Day? Presumably not.
There are two alternatives.
The first is less an exemption for the presidential primary than a breaking up of the consolidated primary to hold a separate presidential primary on a date compliant with both parties' rules and everything else on the Tuesday after the second Tuesday in June as called for in this bill. That would "free up" the legislature in Trenton to move the separate presidential primary to some earlier -- or much earlier -- date on the calendar. Granted, "freeing up" also means the state funding the new and separate presidential primary election (which may or may not prove problematic).
The second option is to create a presidential year -- and not presidential primary -- exemption. In other words, in all years but those divisible by four, the New Jersey primary would fall on the Tuesday after the second Monday in June as called for in Stack's legislation. However, in presidential election years, the date of the consolidated primary would be both earlier and compliant with national party rules.
Or, you know, Sen. Stack could avoid all of these complications and propose shifting the New Jersey consolidated primary in the other direction: into late May (rather than mid-June). Holding a primary and any attendant early voting period slightly before Memorial Day is a means to the same end as well.
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This bill will be added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.
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