Harris: Those most affected by ballot decision not heard
'Is it any reason why people question the fairness of our court system?'
Editor, the Asbury Park Sun:
As the plaintiff in the recent attempt to have ballots counted in the Asbury Park city council election, I am very disappointed with Judge O’Brien’s decision. I am also upset with the conduct that he displayed from the bench.
His interruption of Ms. Howard’s final summation was totally out of order. The people who were most affected by his decision were not allowed to speak. Only representatives of the county clerk’s office and one commissioner of the Monmouth County Board of Elections spoke.
This was after all four board of elections commissioners were served. However, the Attorney General’s Office, who represents the board, said it was only sending one. That gave the court a lopsided view of what happened when the votes were thrown out. Judge O’Brien let it go unquestioned.
If four people whose votes were thrown out had been served, I guarantee you that the court would have made them show up.
Judge O’Brien also chose to use the Boston Way Village as an example of the potential for political wrongdoing. What if we talked about Deal or Interlaken as hotbeds of political corruption when presenting an example? That would have been out of order.
Case law was never filed with our attorney by the Attorney General’s Office or [Asbury Councilman John] Loffredo’s attorney prior to the hearing. Yet case law was used at the last hour from the bench by the judge to deny the opening of the ballots. Thus we did not have a fair opportunity to respond to the case law used by the judge.
We definitely had to present the 1997 Barrett Case; which was a case used in our filings before all the hearings that were held. That put all the other parties on notice and gave them proper time to prepare. However, we did not receive the same opportunity when it came to the case law used by the judge to deny the opening of the ballots.
Is it any reason why people question the fairness of our court system? I can only pray that we will continue to go forward and hope that this system which is designed to protect the rights of all Americans does what it was intended to do.
— Dan Harris, Asbury Park
[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here. Do not send attachments.]
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