6 events in Passaic County with a date

Here is why Legislative is revisiting ballot design

By: Charles Stile
Political Stile
USA Today Network

..... Now that the county line is headed to the dustbin of state history, leaders of the Assembly have cerated a bipartisan committee that will explore new ways to design ballots for New Jersey primaries.
..... The Legislature, which often operates with dead-of-night efficiency, now wants to hear from everybody - election experts, good government advocates who have led the crusade against the antiquated county line ballot and "hardworking professionals who ensure we have fair elections." The lawmakers want to do their homework on this one, it seems.
..... They plan to bring in an expert on ballot design to testify. County election officials from both parties will be summoned to explain the lessons learned form the 2024 primary, when a federal judge ruled the old county line system and ordered new - and fair - block ballot designs for the Democratic primary.
..... This may sound like a topic for nerd insomniacs who watch C-SPAN panel discussion at 2 AM, but, in fact, the crumbling of the line was a seismic moment in New Jersey politics. It was the powerful, coveted tool party bosses sued for automatic victories for their preferred candidates.
..... The stunning ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Qurasishi in Trenton in late March [2024] changed everything, His ruling forced a high-speed sprint by county clerks to discard the old line ballot, in which party candidates were grouped in one column, or line, on the ballot.
.... These bracketed candidates, ranging from president down to county commissioner, made life easy for the disengaged voter who had little knowledge of those seeking office. The line candidates had the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval as the preferred choices of the bosses. Line candidates are almost certain to win.
..... Other candidates often found themselves in "ballot Siberia," scatted in remote are often by themselves and their slogans. They had little chance.
..... Representative Andy Kim, now the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, filed the lawsuit last February. [2024] The following month, [03/2024] Quarishi ruled that the system was probably unconstitutional, setting change in motion. His ruling was a major victor for grassroots activists who had been challenging the party boss system for years with little to show for it.
..... County leaders and the bosses tried to fight it on appeal - even brining in one highly paid election expert with national standing to pontificate on the unsoundness of the judge's ruling. It achieved nothing other an nice payday for Neal Katyal, the former U.S. solicitor General, to defend the old guard. The third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling weeks later.
..... In any case, it appears that there is no turning back. A separate federal case filed four years before Kim;s lawsuit appears to be inching toward a settlement as growing numbers of counties have agreed to accept the new, block ballot employed by the Democrats in June, [2024] which groups the candidates for each office together in one block rather than in one line.
..... The method, used in 49 other states, will likely be adopted by both parties for the 2025 primary.

With the line destroyed, why is the Legislators bothering?

..... In the meantime, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex and his Republican counterpart, GOP leader john DiMaio of Warren County, are stepping into the beach with a 12-member crew of legislators vowing to research, listen and restructure the ballot in order to comply with the court ruling. Transparency. Accountability. Democracy in action.
..... "We are committed to an open and bipartisan process that involves a review of ballots aorta the country and respects the decisions of the courts," Coughlin said in a statement.
..... "Strengthening the integrity of our elections deserves serious discussion, and we're ready to give it the attention it deserves," DiMaio said.
..... That sounds all well and good, but it's hard to puff up with pride and admiration for a Legislature that was anything but transparent in the past two years, ramming thorough a "transparency" reform that opened the spigots of campaign cash for their own benefit, while closing the door earlier this year [2024] on public access to government records -a vital tool for the public and the press to keep tabs on the way state and local movements operate and spend and waste taxpayers money.
..... It's also a Legislature that hid under a rock after then pandemic, refusing to hold public hearings with subpoena power to investigate the Murphy administration's failure in managing state-urn veterans homes, where COVID-19 rampaged and claimed 200 lives. Suddenly, they want to dress up as reformers.
..... And it's also understandable to be skeptical, given that most members of the Legislature owe their careers to the boss-controlled county line system. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, one of the Democratic candidates for governor next year [2025] who is angling to be the darling of grassroots activists, distilled the suspicions in an post on X.
..... "It's a serious moment in national and NJ politics," he wrote. "This committee is made up of the same people that have benefited from ballot design themselves and that alone undermines credibility. Furthermore, many of these same (people) are looking at primaries next year [2025] + so hard to imaging their interest isn't compromised."
..... After meeting with the NorthJersey.com and USA Today Network - New Jersey editorial board earlier this month, [10/2024] Kim said he was unaware of the panel's plans but said he remained wary of any attempt by lawmakers to tweak the ballot in a fashion that effectively retains the power of the line - and the power of those who control it. For example, he's concerned that lawmakers will sign off on plans that would allow the county-blessed candidates singled out in the new block ballot in a way to make them stand out as a preferred choice of the county machines.
..... "We need the court order implemented," Kim said. "I would also want to make sure that there are no markings. I don't want any asterisks. I don't want people's names highlighted."
..... Julia Sass Rubin, the Rutgers professor whose research into the county line became crucial evidence in Kim's lawsuit, also had doubts about the Legislature's vow to lead the way to a new day of ballot reform.
..... Still, Sass Rubin says Quraishi's ruling looms as an important backstop over the panel. Any questionable remedies pursued by the Legislature would most likely have to comport with Quraishi's order - as Coughlin indicated. And it just may open the door to a wider discussion of reform. Already, activists are compiling wish lists for discussion and reform.
..... Sass Rubin would like to see the ballot draw of names be handled by computer, a move that would eliminate the potential of human error or chicanery. And she argues that the names in the ballot blocks be randomized - or shuffled so that random candidates are listed first in the block on the district-by-district basis. That way, she says, no single candidate gets the advantage of being listed first throughout the town or voting area.
..... "The line is just one of the ways you can distort the ballot," she said. "So, I think we just have to be incredibly vigilant, and there's good reason to be concerned."

HOME