A “non-aligned” campaign in New Jersey will look different than in Pennsylvania. Here’s how.

Efforts to persuade voters to abandon President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary to protest his administration’s policies supporting Israel will come to an end next month when New Jersey and other states hold their final presidential primary elections of the cycle.

Progressive activists across the country encouraged voters to vote “disengaged” as a sign of frustration with the Biden administration and support for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Uncommitted New Jersey campaign hopes to reach 50,000 protest votes when the state holds a primary on June 4 aimed at forcing Biden to change his policies before November.

“Our message has been loud and clear and you have moved, but it’s not enough, so we’re going to try to get them to move as much as possible,” said Saif Hasan, spokesman for the Uncommitted New Jersey campaign. “I hope they can move enough to a place where we feel like we live in a democracy again.”

The Biden administration told Congress this week it would sell $1 billion worth of weapons and ammunition to Israel, according to the Associated Press. This is the first weapons delivery since Biden’s pause another arms transfer of 3,500 bombs following concerns about civilian casualties in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Nearly 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a military operation following the October 7 attack, in which Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.

Hasan described the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth” that was financed by American taxes.

How can New Jerseyans vote “unaligned”?

Voters in most of New Jersey will have this option next month to vote for unaligned delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer. The Uncommitted New Jersey campaign, funded by the Democratic Socialists of America, has launched a signature campaign to encourage delegates to vote across the state.

The voting language in which the campaign was successful will be clear. In addition to the bold word “non-aligned,” the ballot will include the slogan: “Justice for Palestine, a permanent ceasefire now.”

However, the “uncommitted” option won’t be available everywhere.

Voters in parts of Monmouth and Ocean counties will not have that option.

Campaigners did not meet the signature threshold required to be included on the ballot in two of New Jersey’s 20 delegation districts. The campaign asked protesting voters in these two precincts to write the word “unaligned” on their ballot.

The New Jersey Department of State said candidates who filed nomination petitions as “uncommitted” would appear on the ballot. Voters, a spokeswoman for the office said in an e-mail, can choose from among the delegates on the ballot, exploit the write-in option or not vote.

Can New Jersey Republicans vote “without commitment”?

There will be no clear option to vote on the protest for New Jersey Republicans who want to oppose former President Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee.

No organization has launched a signature campaign aimed at “unapproval” or any other protest option on the Republican ballot. Republicans who do not support Trump can exploit the write-in option or opt out of having votes counted in the presidential race.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley also will not be on the ballot in New Jersey. Haley was on the ballot in Pennsylvania last month — even though she dropped out of the race in March — and won 17% of the vote statewide, including 23% in Philadelphia counties.

Voters in Cherry Hill will have to write in Haley’s name if they want to support her against Trump.

How have the “disengaged” campaigns fared so far?

In some states, the “uncommitted” option is automatically placed on primary presidential ballots, while pro-vote voters have had to fight for access to ballots in other states or have launched write-in campaigns.

According to data from nine of the 18 states where there was an option to vote “uncommitted”, more than 10% of Democratic voters chose this option. Associated Press data. Often, at least 10% of the vote went to a combination of uncommitted, write-in votes or minor Biden competitors.

How did the “unaligned” campaign go in Pennsylvania?

The results of the “uncommitted” campaign will be more pronounced in New Jersey than last month’s presidential primary in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania does not have an “uncommitted” option on the main ballot, so protest voters instead used the write-in option to vote uncommitted.

The state election code only requires counties to count votes cast for an individual, which means that in many counties, “unspent” presidential votes were ruled invalid or scattered. Not every district provided the total number of registered invalid or scattered votes.

More than 60,000 voters in the Democratic primary took advantage of the opportunity to sign up. In Philadelphia, data recorded by the City Board of Elections showed that 14,625 votes recorded in that county were marked as invalid, meaning they may have been “uncommitted” or may have been cast for another non-individual entity, such as Gritty. This number represented approximately 90% of all votes cast in the Democratic presidential primary.

Votes were also cast for many other people, including Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.