Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz Expresses Concern About Voter Disfranchisement and 

Confusion on Ballots for Tuesday’s Election on Local Run-off Referendum

PERTH AMBOY, NJ – November 4, 2019 — Mayor Wilda Diaz will continue to fight in court to uphold the complete access to bilingual information on all ballot questions posed to citizens on Tuesday’s election. In a complaint filed on October 28, 2019, Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz argued that the Spanish instructions of the public question regarding run-off elections in the city was omitted from the face of the mail-in ballot, and hence, disenfranchises Spanish speaking voters in Perth Amboy who were not provided with complete and accurate information on the ballot question.

Specifically, Mayor Diaz lawsuit charges that the Middlesex County Clerk failed to comply with New Jersey law in the preparation of the mail-in ballot and the ballots for Tuesday’s election.  New Jersey law that requires that the mail-in ballot resemble the election ballot as closely as possible.

Mayor Diaz maintains that since the instructions are not printed in Spanish and Gujarati on the face of the mail-in ballot as they are on the official ballot, the discrepancy will cause significant confusion in the majority Latino community that resides in the City of Perth Amboy, which may affect the outcome of the election and the question on Tuesday.

“Without clear instructions in English, Spanish, and Gujarati, voters cannot make an informed decision about an issue that could significantly affect their lives,” said the mayor. “Run-off elections are expensive, costing between $80,000 to $100,000 each time and impacting our city budgets. Voters need to know that there was important information that was omitted in the ballot sent to voters.”

Although the judge dismissed the initial complaint, Mayor Diaz will continue to purse legal action to make sure NJ election law is followed specially in towns with high numbers of bilingual voters.

“My request that the County re-prints the ballots to meet the bilinguals needs of our city population,” said Diaz.  “While judge denied our request, this means voters will now go to the polls on Tuesday without fully understanding what they are voting for. I will continue to defend the rights of voters to receive full and accurate information on all matters related to elections.  This move by the Middlesex County Clerk to print a confusing ballot is political and will disfranchise our multilingual population,” she added.

In March, the city council unanimously approved an ordinance to submit the proposal to voters. In August of this year, the council passed the resolution supporting the passage of the referendum.

“A NJ court ruled recently that bilingual mail-in ballots should be provided to voters in cities with a high-number of bilingual voters. If this recent ruling does not apply to mail-in ballots as stated by the local ruling, then we will take it to a higher court,” said Mayor Diaz.  “I also urge the State Legislature to enact legislation on this issue that clarifies that ALL voters deserve to received full information on their local ballots. A local County-Clerk should not be allowed to pick-and-choose which information they deem appropriate to omit from the bilingual ballot,” concluded the mayor.

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