Byrne will Witness and Document the 2024 Line A Drawing 

Montclair, New Jersey –  Montclair Republican County Committee Chairman Michael D. Byrne today announced he would attend the 2024 drawing for ballot position in Essex County to witness and document the conduct of the selection which has long been the subject of lawsuits and controversy.

“The drawing for general election ballot position has been rigged for decades,” Byrne said.  “We simply want a fair drawing where each party has an equal chance of winning Line A and each party actually wins Line A half the time.”

Last year, Byrne brought an emergent lawsuit against Democrat County Clerk Christopher J. Durkin demanding he abide by a New Jersey Supreme Court decision stipulating the “integrity of the draw” be assured “in both appearance and fact.”

“Our Republican candidates deserve a fair and equal chance to appear on Line A,” Byrne said.  “But until I spoke up last year, Durkin gave his own Democrat Party the preferential Line A eighteen consecutive times in 17 years in a series of ‘random’ drawings — a statistical absurdity.”

Byrne said that in a court hearing last year, Durkin assured the judge that last year’s drawing would be fair.  But when the drawing was held, it inexplicably took Durkin ten (10) full seconds to pick the capsule he wanted to draw.

“It appeared that the drawing was engineered to have the opposite outcome last year simply because we hauled him into court a few minutes earlier,” Byrne said.  “The drawing was actually comical.”

Byrne posted the video of the drawing on Facebook.com/MontclairGOP where it can still be seen and then immediately submitted a sworn certification to the court describing his concerns even though the outcome was beneficial to him and the GOP.

“I call on the Montclair Democrat County Committee, Mikie Sherrill, LaMonica McIver to join me in Newark tomorrow to demand a fair drawing.”

Byrne said the drawing would be held at 3:00 PM at the Essex County governmental complex.

“It should be a very simple process: the Clerk should reach into the tumbler and pull the first capsule he finds — not fumble around for an eternity trying to identify the capsule he wants to pick.”