County Clerk Advises School Board Candidates of

New Legislation Regarding School Board Elections

FREEHOLD, NJ – Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon is advising school board candidates that a recently enacted law, NJ Senate, No. 868, allows school board candidates to run with a slogan and to run as a team in school board elections.

Candidates for school board are now permitted to have short nonpolitical designation of principles on petitions and ballots.

The designation may consist of a maximum of three words that conveys the principle that the candidate or candidates represent. The designation should not contain the name or a derivative of any political party entitled to participate in a primary election.

The new law also allows candidates for school board to circulate petitions jointly and be bracketed together on the ballot. Candidates filing jointly may also include a designation.

If the school board election is being held in November, candidates willing to bracket must notify the County Clerk in writing, at least seven days before the drawing date, that they wish to have their names with their chosen designation, if any, bracketed together. If the election is any other time, the candidates must notify the Secretary of the School Board.

Bracketing together would result in the candidates’ names and designation, if any, to be selected as a group at the drawing and that their names would appear together on the ballot. The candidates should determine among themselves the order in which their names should appear within the bracket prior to notifying the County Clerk.

For more information regarding petitions, elections, and voting, please contact the Monmouth County Clerk of Elections Office at 732-431-7790 or visit our elections website at www.MonmouthCountyVotes.com/SchoolBoard.

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