newjerseynewsroom.com

A federal judge Wednesday ordered Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, state Attorney General Paula T. Dow and the three county clerks within the 8th Legislative District to show why Democratic state Senate candidate Carl Lewis should not be included on mail-in primary election ballots scheduled to be sent out Thursday.

Guadagno, a Republican, in her role as state secretary of state, Tuesday declared Lewis does not meet New Jersey’s four year residency requirement to run for the Legislature and could not appear on the ballot.

Lewis, an Olympic track and field gold medalist, challenged the decision in federal court. His attorneys argued the residency requirement violates the federal constitution and his civil rights, they asked for a restraining order on the printing and mailing of ballots without Lewis’s name on them.

U.S. District Court Judge Noel L. Hillman sitting in Camden declared that if Lewis is found eligible to run, “the mailing of inaccurate or incomplete primary election ballots could constitute irreparable harm and confuse voters on a matter of fundamental public interest.”

But Hillman also declared Lewis "has failed to demonstrate sufficient evidence regarding the immediacy of any irreparable harm" because "the record is not sufficiently developed" as to when county clerks in the South Jersey planned to mail the ballots.

Hillman directed the state and county clerks to make their case against an injunction on sending out the ballots at 1 p.m., Thursday.

Lewis' attorneys also appealed Guadagno's decision in state Superior Court Wednesday. They argued his two Republican challengers do not have standing to have him removed from the Democratic primary ballot, that the residency requirement violates the U.S. Constitution; and that even if the requirement were valid Lewis would prove his residency.

– TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM