January 9, 2008 - 2:00pm

It's because this time, Angelo Genova didn't care enough to ask

Joseph Biden dropped his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 4, but his name will remain on the ballot for the February 5 New Jersey primary.  A spokesman for the state Division of Elections says the difference between Biden’s withdrawal (32 days before the primary) and Robert Torricelli’s exit from the U.S. Senate race (36 days before the 2002 general election) is that in ’02 the Democratic State Committee was willing to pay the cost of changing candidates. 

PolitickerNJ.com’s Matt Friedman asked if elections officials would lock the lever by Biden’s name so that no votes would be cast for him while eliminating extra printing costs.  "Not that I know of,” said David Wald, a spokesman for the state Attorney General.  “You'll have to ask each county.”