New Jersey
Appeals court leaves hold on primary ballot system in place
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court upheld a lower court judge’s ruling putting a temporary halt on New Jersey’s primary ballot design, widely seen as helping those with party establishment support.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia denied an appeal by county clerks seeking to halt U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi’s recent order preliminarily stopping how the officials design primary ballots. The appeals court ruling means Quraishi’s order stays in place ahead of the June 4 primary.
The higher court’s ruling on Wednesday is just the latest in a flurry of developments affecting how the state’s elections are carried out. Quraishi clarified over the weekend that his order applies only to the Democratic primary, not the Republican.
The suit was brought by Democratic Rep. Andy Kim as part of his campaign to succeed indicted Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. Kim and two other Democratic candidates sued in federal court to block New Jersey’s so-called county line primary system.
New Jersey is the only state to set its primary ballots in that way, which groups candidates who have won the county party’s backing in a single column, and listing others in discrete places elsewhere on the ballot. Kim — and many people in New Jersey politics — contend that such a system of bracketing party-backed candidates gives them an unfair advantage and relegates other candidates to “ballot Siberia.”
Quraishi agreed to the extent that he ruled the county clerks in most of the state must stop using that system for the June primary. What happens beyond that is unclear.
Kim’s suit originated out of his contest against first lady Tammy Murphy for the state’s Senate seat, but she has since dropped out of the race, leaving Kim in favorable position.
The crux of his argument was that because Murphy earned the backing of powerful county party leaders in populous areas, she was unfairly given favorable ballot position. Her departure from the race leaves Kim as a dominant candidate in the party, though he’s vowed to continue to fight the county line system.
That aligns with progressives in the party who have railed against the county line for years, arguing it unfairly tips primaries toward influential party leaders who make their choices behind closed doors.
Republicans were not originally part of Kim’s lawsuit, though they recently petitioned Quraishi to join. He denied their request, saying they missed a deadline.
New Jersey hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in over five decades, but the GOP is hopeful that their rivals might be tarnished because Menendez’s second corruption trial. He’s pleaded not guilty to federal charges he accepted bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury vehicle in return for helping business associated get a lucrative contract from Egypt.
Democrats have nearly a million more registered voters than Republicans in New Jersey.
North Carolina
Judge refuses to dismiss lawsuits challenging change to same-day registration
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Two lawsuits challenging how North Carolina legislators recently tightened same-day voter registration can continue, even though state election officials have recently made adjustments to address a judge’s constitutional concerns.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder refused on Tuesday to dismiss the suits filed by several voter advocacy groups and a voter, rejecting motions from defendants who include Republican legislative leaders and the State Board of Elections.
The lawsuits target a 2023 law that changes when election officials can disqualify a vote cast by someone who registered the same day during the 17-day early voting period.
With over 100,000 new registrants having sought same-day registration in North Carolina during each of the last two presidential general elections, adjustments in the same-day rules could affect close statewide elections this fall.
A provision of the new law stated that same-day applicants would be removed from voter rolls if election officials sent them a single piece of mail that came back as undeliverable. The previous law required two pieces of undeliverable mail. The groups who sued said the new procedure would increase risks that voters would be disenfranchised by paperwork errors or mail mishaps.
Early this year, Schroeder ruled that the provision was likely unconstitutional on due process grounds. In a Jan. 21 injunction, he said the change couldn’t take effect without administrative protections that would allow an applicant to challenge their vote from being disqualified.
In response a week later, the state board sent county election offices an updated memorandum that amended same-day registration rules so as to create a formal way to appeal being removed from the voter rolls after one undeliverable mailer. The state board’s rule alterations were used in the March 5 primary.
Attorneys for the Republican lawmakers cited the memo last month in a brief asking for one of the lawsuits to be dismissed, saying “there is no longer a live case or controversy that the Court can redress.”
But Schroeder noted that under state law, rules the State Board of Elections rewrites in response to a court decision are temporary. In this case, the changes expire in early 2025.
Schroeder acknowledged that it’s likely the General Assembly will pass a law to make the state board’s rules permanent. But for now, the rules remain temporary, he wrote, and legislators haven’t shown that the “interim rule moots the complaint.”
In separate orders denying dismissals of the lawsuits, the judge, who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush, also wrote that the plaintiffs had legal standing to sue or that their allegations surpassed a low plausibility threshold.
At least three lawsuits have been filed challenging portions of the wide-ranging voting law that the General Assembly enacted last October over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.
The third lawsuit, filed by the national and state Democratic parties, challenges a handful of other provisions and was part of the January preliminary injunction. Dismissal motions in this case are pending.
Schroeder addressed the other two lawsuits on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the judge also set a June 3 trial date for one of these lawsuits, filed by Democracy North Carolina, the North Carolina Black Alliance and the League of Women Voters of North Carolina.
New York
Man charged with sending threats to state attorney general and judge in Trump civil suit
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York man has been charged with sending death threats to the state attorney general and the Manhattan judge who presided over former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud case.
Tyler Vogel, 26, of Lancaster, sent text messages late last month threatening New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron with “death and physical harm” if they did not comply with his demands to “cease action” in the Trump case, according to a complaint filed last week in a court in Lancaster, a suburb east of Buffalo.
State police said in the complaint that Vogel used a paid online background website to obtain private information about James and Engoron and that this “confirmed intentions to follow through with the threats were his demands not met.”
Vogel has been charged with two felony counts of making a terroristic threat and two misdemeanor counts of aggravated harassment.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn’s office said in a news release that a temporary protection order was also issued. If convicted, Vogel faces a maximum of seven years in prison, the office said.
It’s unclear if Vogel has legal representation. Joseph Spino, a spokesperson for Flynn’s office, said Wednesday night that he didn’t have more details, other than that Vogel had been held pending the results of a forensic exam and was due back in court April 9.
The case also wasn’t listed on the state’s online court database and spokespersons for the state police and Lancaster Town Court, where Vogel was arraigned last week, didn’t respond to emails.
Meanwhile Trump, who is running again for president this year, posted a $175 million bond Monday in the civil fraud case brought by James’ office. That halted the collection of the more than $454 million he owes and prevented the state from seizing his assets to satisfy the debt while he appeals.
Trump is fighting to overturn Engoron’s Feb. 16 finding that he lied about his wealth as he fostered the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency. The trial focused on how Trump’s assets were valued on financial statements that went to bankers and insurers to get loans and deals.
Pennsylvania
DA plans to seek death penalty against man charged with killing 3 relatives
FALLSINGTON, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania authorities said Wednesday they plan to pursue the death penalty against a man charged with killing his stepmother, sister and the mother of his children before officials say he fled in a stolen vehicle to New Jersey, where he was arrested last month.
Andre Gordon Jr. appeared for court in Pennsylvania for the first time since authorities said he carried out three fatal shootings on March 16 in the Levittown section of Falls Township, as well as a pair of carjackings nearby in suburban Philadelphia.
Arriving at magisterial district court not far from where authorities said the shootings happened, Gordon was wearing an orange jumpsuit and was shackled at the wrists and ankles.
In the roughly 10-minute preliminary arraignment, Judge John Galloway denied bail and ordered Gordon, who appeared without an attorney in court, not to contact his minor children and other relatives who were witnesses to the crimes he is charged with.
Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn told reporters outside the court after the hearing that she decided to notify the court of her plan to seek capital punishment because of the “multiple killings and grave risk to others.”
Earlier Wednesday, Gordon, 26, waived an extradition hearing in New Jersey and was transferred to officials in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, according to prosecutors and the New Jersey court’s spokesperson.
Authorities have said Gordon carjacked a vehicle in Trenton, New Jersey, early on March 16 before driving to Levittown in Falls Township, Pennsylvania.
There, he killed his stepmother and sister, the Bucks County district attorney said. He then drove to a second home in Levittown and killed the mother of his two children, authorities said. He is also accused of injuring his children’s grandmother by bludgeoning her with a rifle.
The dead included Gordon’s 52-year-old stepmother, Karen Gordon; his 13-year-old sister, Kera Gordon; and 25-year-old Taylor Daniel, the mother of his two children, the district attorney said. Authorities have said Gordon’s children were present when he shot their mother.
Gordon then carjacked a second vehicle in Morrisville and returned to Trenton, authorities said. Police surrounded a home for hours in the belief that he was there, but Gordon apparently slipped out before a cordon went up. He was arrested, unarmed, when he was spotted walking down a street a few blocks away.
The mayhem forced the cancellation of a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County and the closure of a Sesame Street-themed amusement park and a number of other businesses. Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order for several hours.
Officials have not released a possible motive for the attacks.
Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has said he would not allow executions to occur while he is governor, saying he wants the legislature to work to abolish it. The state’s most recent execution took place in 1999.
Appeals court leaves hold on primary ballot system in place
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court upheld a lower court judge’s ruling putting a temporary halt on New Jersey’s primary ballot design, widely seen as helping those with party establishment support.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia denied an appeal by county clerks seeking to halt U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi’s recent order preliminarily stopping how the officials design primary ballots. The appeals court ruling means Quraishi’s order stays in place ahead of the June 4 primary.
The higher court’s ruling on Wednesday is just the latest in a flurry of developments affecting how the state’s elections are carried out. Quraishi clarified over the weekend that his order applies only to the Democratic primary, not the Republican.
The suit was brought by Democratic Rep. Andy Kim as part of his campaign to succeed indicted Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. Kim and two other Democratic candidates sued in federal court to block New Jersey’s so-called county line primary system.
New Jersey is the only state to set its primary ballots in that way, which groups candidates who have won the county party’s backing in a single column, and listing others in discrete places elsewhere on the ballot. Kim — and many people in New Jersey politics — contend that such a system of bracketing party-backed candidates gives them an unfair advantage and relegates other candidates to “ballot Siberia.”
Quraishi agreed to the extent that he ruled the county clerks in most of the state must stop using that system for the June primary. What happens beyond that is unclear.
Kim’s suit originated out of his contest against first lady Tammy Murphy for the state’s Senate seat, but she has since dropped out of the race, leaving Kim in favorable position.
The crux of his argument was that because Murphy earned the backing of powerful county party leaders in populous areas, she was unfairly given favorable ballot position. Her departure from the race leaves Kim as a dominant candidate in the party, though he’s vowed to continue to fight the county line system.
That aligns with progressives in the party who have railed against the county line for years, arguing it unfairly tips primaries toward influential party leaders who make their choices behind closed doors.
Republicans were not originally part of Kim’s lawsuit, though they recently petitioned Quraishi to join. He denied their request, saying they missed a deadline.
New Jersey hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in over five decades, but the GOP is hopeful that their rivals might be tarnished because Menendez’s second corruption trial. He’s pleaded not guilty to federal charges he accepted bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury vehicle in return for helping business associated get a lucrative contract from Egypt.
Democrats have nearly a million more registered voters than Republicans in New Jersey.
North Carolina
Judge refuses to dismiss lawsuits challenging change to same-day registration
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Two lawsuits challenging how North Carolina legislators recently tightened same-day voter registration can continue, even though state election officials have recently made adjustments to address a judge’s constitutional concerns.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder refused on Tuesday to dismiss the suits filed by several voter advocacy groups and a voter, rejecting motions from defendants who include Republican legislative leaders and the State Board of Elections.
The lawsuits target a 2023 law that changes when election officials can disqualify a vote cast by someone who registered the same day during the 17-day early voting period.
With over 100,000 new registrants having sought same-day registration in North Carolina during each of the last two presidential general elections, adjustments in the same-day rules could affect close statewide elections this fall.
A provision of the new law stated that same-day applicants would be removed from voter rolls if election officials sent them a single piece of mail that came back as undeliverable. The previous law required two pieces of undeliverable mail. The groups who sued said the new procedure would increase risks that voters would be disenfranchised by paperwork errors or mail mishaps.
Early this year, Schroeder ruled that the provision was likely unconstitutional on due process grounds. In a Jan. 21 injunction, he said the change couldn’t take effect without administrative protections that would allow an applicant to challenge their vote from being disqualified.
In response a week later, the state board sent county election offices an updated memorandum that amended same-day registration rules so as to create a formal way to appeal being removed from the voter rolls after one undeliverable mailer. The state board’s rule alterations were used in the March 5 primary.
Attorneys for the Republican lawmakers cited the memo last month in a brief asking for one of the lawsuits to be dismissed, saying “there is no longer a live case or controversy that the Court can redress.”
But Schroeder noted that under state law, rules the State Board of Elections rewrites in response to a court decision are temporary. In this case, the changes expire in early 2025.
Schroeder acknowledged that it’s likely the General Assembly will pass a law to make the state board’s rules permanent. But for now, the rules remain temporary, he wrote, and legislators haven’t shown that the “interim rule moots the complaint.”
In separate orders denying dismissals of the lawsuits, the judge, who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush, also wrote that the plaintiffs had legal standing to sue or that their allegations surpassed a low plausibility threshold.
At least three lawsuits have been filed challenging portions of the wide-ranging voting law that the General Assembly enacted last October over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.
The third lawsuit, filed by the national and state Democratic parties, challenges a handful of other provisions and was part of the January preliminary injunction. Dismissal motions in this case are pending.
Schroeder addressed the other two lawsuits on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the judge also set a June 3 trial date for one of these lawsuits, filed by Democracy North Carolina, the North Carolina Black Alliance and the League of Women Voters of North Carolina.
New York
Man charged with sending threats to state attorney general and judge in Trump civil suit
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York man has been charged with sending death threats to the state attorney general and the Manhattan judge who presided over former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud case.
Tyler Vogel, 26, of Lancaster, sent text messages late last month threatening New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron with “death and physical harm” if they did not comply with his demands to “cease action” in the Trump case, according to a complaint filed last week in a court in Lancaster, a suburb east of Buffalo.
State police said in the complaint that Vogel used a paid online background website to obtain private information about James and Engoron and that this “confirmed intentions to follow through with the threats were his demands not met.”
Vogel has been charged with two felony counts of making a terroristic threat and two misdemeanor counts of aggravated harassment.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn’s office said in a news release that a temporary protection order was also issued. If convicted, Vogel faces a maximum of seven years in prison, the office said.
It’s unclear if Vogel has legal representation. Joseph Spino, a spokesperson for Flynn’s office, said Wednesday night that he didn’t have more details, other than that Vogel had been held pending the results of a forensic exam and was due back in court April 9.
The case also wasn’t listed on the state’s online court database and spokespersons for the state police and Lancaster Town Court, where Vogel was arraigned last week, didn’t respond to emails.
Meanwhile Trump, who is running again for president this year, posted a $175 million bond Monday in the civil fraud case brought by James’ office. That halted the collection of the more than $454 million he owes and prevented the state from seizing his assets to satisfy the debt while he appeals.
Trump is fighting to overturn Engoron’s Feb. 16 finding that he lied about his wealth as he fostered the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency. The trial focused on how Trump’s assets were valued on financial statements that went to bankers and insurers to get loans and deals.
Pennsylvania
DA plans to seek death penalty against man charged with killing 3 relatives
FALLSINGTON, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania authorities said Wednesday they plan to pursue the death penalty against a man charged with killing his stepmother, sister and the mother of his children before officials say he fled in a stolen vehicle to New Jersey, where he was arrested last month.
Andre Gordon Jr. appeared for court in Pennsylvania for the first time since authorities said he carried out three fatal shootings on March 16 in the Levittown section of Falls Township, as well as a pair of carjackings nearby in suburban Philadelphia.
Arriving at magisterial district court not far from where authorities said the shootings happened, Gordon was wearing an orange jumpsuit and was shackled at the wrists and ankles.
In the roughly 10-minute preliminary arraignment, Judge John Galloway denied bail and ordered Gordon, who appeared without an attorney in court, not to contact his minor children and other relatives who were witnesses to the crimes he is charged with.
Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn told reporters outside the court after the hearing that she decided to notify the court of her plan to seek capital punishment because of the “multiple killings and grave risk to others.”
Earlier Wednesday, Gordon, 26, waived an extradition hearing in New Jersey and was transferred to officials in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, according to prosecutors and the New Jersey court’s spokesperson.
Authorities have said Gordon carjacked a vehicle in Trenton, New Jersey, early on March 16 before driving to Levittown in Falls Township, Pennsylvania.
There, he killed his stepmother and sister, the Bucks County district attorney said. He then drove to a second home in Levittown and killed the mother of his two children, authorities said. He is also accused of injuring his children’s grandmother by bludgeoning her with a rifle.
The dead included Gordon’s 52-year-old stepmother, Karen Gordon; his 13-year-old sister, Kera Gordon; and 25-year-old Taylor Daniel, the mother of his two children, the district attorney said. Authorities have said Gordon’s children were present when he shot their mother.
Gordon then carjacked a second vehicle in Morrisville and returned to Trenton, authorities said. Police surrounded a home for hours in the belief that he was there, but Gordon apparently slipped out before a cordon went up. He was arrested, unarmed, when he was spotted walking down a street a few blocks away.
The mayhem forced the cancellation of a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County and the closure of a Sesame Street-themed amusement park and a number of other businesses. Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order for several hours.
Officials have not released a possible motive for the attacks.
Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has said he would not allow executions to occur while he is governor, saying he wants the legislature to work to abolish it. The state’s most recent execution took place in 1999.
