Byrne Announces Support for Line Lawsuit
Declares County Line the Ultimate Uni-Party Scam

Montclair, NJ – Montclair Republican County Committee Chairman and America First Republican Michael D. Byrne today announced his support for the new lawsuit to end the County Line.

“Nowhere have uni-party power-brokers done more to sabotage ‘democracy’ than in Essex County where Democrats and Republicans have colluded for decades to suppress minority votes,” Byrne said.  “It’s time to kill the County Line.”

In 2021, Byrne sued Essex County Democrat Clerk Christopher J. Durkin for denying him the use of a ballot slogan which he owned.  Durkin instead gave Byrne’s slogan to the Republican County Chairman who never once owned it and who was a registered lobbyist for Durkin’s Democrat-controlled county government.

Byrne also sued Durkin in 2023 for giving preferential Line A ballot position to his own Democrat Party 18 consecutive times — a statistical impossibility and absurdity that Republican leaders allowed Democrats get away with in a backroom deal.

“The County Clerks are given immense power to contrive the ballot in ways that empower and advantage themselves, their friends, and their donors,” Byrne said.  “They weaponize the ballot against anyone not controlled by party bosses.”

Byrne is no stranger to the fight to end the County Line scam.  In 2021, he endorsed a federal suit to end the Line and in 2023, he filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in Mazo vs. Way concerning First Amendment violations of the slogan statutes.

“Politicians are not our superiors and they routinely prove that they’re not our betters,” Byrne said.  “They deserve real competition to hold their seats.  But the Line protects them from real accountability and that’s why the Line has to go.”