"The Weak Link: Poll Workers -- Their Recruitment, Training, and Management" by Renee Steinhagen, Esq., Executive Director, NJ Appleseed PILC, and Alice Crozier, Professor of English Emerita, Rutgers University member LWVNJ and People for Open Government, Hoboken, NJ With respect to poll worker training, there have been some improvements such as providing an excellent training manual statewide; however more changes need to be made to ensure efficient, competent poll workers who are both trained, tested and certified as to basic knowledge.  This report was submitted to Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, Division of Elections Director Robert Giles, and Asst. Attorney General Donna Kelly on October 10.

Settlement: People for Open Gov (POG) v. Hoboken
A group of Hoboken activists calling themselves People for Open Government (POG) worked hard to get the "Public Contracting Reform Ordinance" enacted, to guard against corruption of local government by developers seeking city contracts.  POG wanted to ensure that city contracts would be awarded on the basis of experience, reputation, and bid cost -- not handed out to the biggest campaign contributors. When the City of Hoboken declined to enforce the ordinance passed by the voters in 2004, NJ Appleseed helped POG in their fight. NJ Appleseed won its case on behalf of POG by entering an innovative settlement that requires the City to facilitate enforcement of the pay-to-play ordinance. Earlier this year, NJ Appleseed helped POG win the right to challenge the City on this matter. With this consent decree, the City of Hoboken will be compelled to appoint a "Pay-to-Play" Reform Compliance Officer to monitor the awarding of city contracts to ensure that they comply with the Public Contracting Reform Ordinance. This sends a message to all municipalities whose voters have enacted "pay-to-play" reforms: local governments will be held accountable to the people in court.

New Brunswick Activists Prevail: Petition Fight
Renee Steinhagen, Executive Director of New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center, and Bennet Zurofsky, Esq. of Reitman Parsonnet, PC, successfully represented the community activist group 'Empower Our Neighborhoods' (EON) in its fight against the City of New Brunswick.  At Middlesex County Courthouse on Tuesday September 2, 2008, Judge Heidi Willis Currier ruled in favor of the activists, who fought their city's rejection of their petition to put two questions on the ballot in November.  Click here to listen to Judge Currier's ruling.  The two questions have the potential to reform the structure of New Brunswick's government by increasing the size of the city council and possibly moving the municipality to a ward-based system of governance.

Giving NJ's Minor Political Parties a Chance
This article, "Giving New Jersey's Minor Political Parties a Chance: Permitting Alternative Voting Systems in Local Elections," appeared in the August 2008 issue of New Jersey Lawyer Magazine and was written by Renee Steinhagen, Esq., Executive Director of New Jersey Appleseed.  In it, Ms. Steinhagen provides an overview of alternative voting systems that would give alternative political parties greater influence, such as instant runoff voting (IRV), range voting, Borda count voting, Condorcet voting, and approval voting.  Votes for third-party candidates are limited by the fact that people tend to want to vote for a candidate whom they believe is able to win.  Moreover, they hesitate to cast a vote that might help a major party candidate they disfavor.  Ms. Steinhagen believes that authorizing localities to experiment with different voting systems will begin to redress the worst consequence of the current system - a two-party system immune from new ideas and significant political and economic change.

Pay to Play: Big Money, Politics, and the Vote
This article in the August 2008 issue of New Jersey Lawyer Magazine was written by Diana H. Jeffrey, Esq., Director of New Jersey Appleseed's Corporate and Government Accountability Program.  In it, Ms. Jeffrey describes the difficulties in solving the complex pay-to-play problem in New Jersey.  The effort to enact and enforce effective pay-to-play reform legislation is an ongoing struggle, despite the many abuses that clearly demonstrate the need for change.

">