‘Fusion Voting’ Touted as Way to Break Polarized Partisan Paralysis

FORKED RIVER, N.J.—Founders of New Jersey’s fledging Moderate Party are vowing to continue their efforts toward ending the state’s century-old ban on “fusion voting” after their petition to place a candidate already endorsed by one of the two major parties under their banner as well on November’s ballot was rejected in early June.

That candidate, two-term U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), is being challenged by Republican Thomas Kean Jr., in a rematch of their 2020 7th Congressional District (CD 7) race decided by 5,329 votes, or less than 1 percent, in one of the nation’s most-watched elections.

In a July 6 New York Times guest essay titled “A Viable Third Party Is Coming, and It’s Starting With a New Jersey Lawsuit,” Malinowski wrote that there is momentum across the country for centrist alternatives that would “empower swing voters to save our democracy from toxic polarization” engendered by Democratic and Republican parties hijacked by extremists on the left and the right.

But five weeks after state Secretary of State Tahesha Way rejected the nascent Moderate Party’s petition to place Malinowski as its 7th District candidate on the Nov. 8 ballot, time is running out for legal action to produce a decision before vote-by-mail ballots must be dispatched on Sept. 24. 

Inaction over a vowed lawsuit has fostered ridicule from Republicans and the Kean campaign who see the newly minted party as a stunt designed to distract voters from the fact that Malinowski is a Democrat who supports Biden administration policies that they say have failed and are out-of-step with the district’s voters.

“Fusion voting” isn’t the same as voting for “third party” hopefuls placed on ballots against candidates sponsored by the two major parties. Under this system, multiple parties can nominate the same candidate, who can appear more than once on the ballot, and