The following release was issued directly from Mayor Dawn Zimmer:
Hoboken Mayor Zimmer, Councilman Mello and Others File Voting Rights Lawsuit
In order to ensure that voters in Southwest Hoboken are not again forced to
wait in hour long lines at the polls in the upcoming Presidential election,
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, City Councilman Dave Mello and two other
residents of Hoboken’ s 4th Ward,2nd district, filed a lawsuit (docket # C-4-12) seeking
to compel Hudson County to comply with State law and to reduce the size of District 4-2.
The district, by far Hoboken’s largest, has nearly 2500 registered voters.
New Jersey law requires that election districts generally contain between
500 and 750 registered voters. Not only are 4-2 residents crammed into an
election district more than 3 times larger than normal, they do not even
have a polling place within their district. 4-2 voters must go to a
building located in 4-3 to cast their votes, an overcrowded polling place
housing two large voting districts.
In the 2008 Presidential election, more than 1400 4-2 residents cast votes.
In the 2009 general election, more than 780 4-2 voters cast votes. Despite
the fact that State law requires that election districts be subdivided if more than
750 people cast votes in consecutive years, Hudson County did not subdivide
the district to correct the problem.
Mayor Zimmer explained that she felt it was critical that this problem be
addressed immediately, given the large turnout that will certainly occur
during the upcoming Presidential election. “In 2008 and 2009, 4-2 residents
were forced to wait in unacceptably long lines in order to exercise their
right to vote,” said Mayor Zimmer. “The law is clear, and we must comply
with the law and fix the problem now before the Presidential election coming
up in November.”
Councilman Mello echoed Mayor Zimmer’s sentiments saying “nobody should Read More...
