NJ Senate committee moves froward with new ballot design
By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... A bill to redesign New Jersey's election ballots - grouping candidates by office instead of the so-called "county line" - was unanimously cleared out of the sate Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday [02/20/2025] but advocates said the move fell short of creating a fair ballot that didn't favor one group of candidates over another.
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The Senate bill would require county clerks to design ballots that group candidates by office and would not allow candidates running for different offices to be bracketed together. It would also eliminate the existence of so-called "ballot Siberia," which isolate some candidates to the outer edges of the ballot. This design would also remove the election of party stat4e committee members from the primary and allow for sate committee members to instead be elected by the county committee.
..... Candidates would be placed on the ballot in the order determined by drawing of names.
..... But amendments too the bill have fair ballot advocates crying foul.
..... Nearly tow hours of testimony - that took place after the committee spent three hours handling other business - focused primarily on design stipulations that would create labels on the ballot indicating the draw position for each candidate. the draw positions would be noted by a letter and number, something many at the hearing said would cerate unnecessary clutter and confusion on the ballot.
..... Fair ballot advocates also took issue with an amendment that would "allow candidates for the same office with multiple open seas to associate in the same office block, using a common slogan or endorsement, next to or below the associated candidate names' and would "indicate the association of candidates for the same or different office suing a common slogan or endorsement next to or below each of the candidates' names."
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Antoinette Miles, state director for New Jersey Working Families, said her organization owed with the Assembly late last year. [2024]
..... She raised concerns about the association prevision, which would allow multiple candidates to be placed on the ballot after a single draw, as opposed to individual draws for each candidate.
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"There are still provisions in this bill hat makes it untenable in terms of a fair ballot,: she said.
.... "I want to be very clear here today [02/20/2025] the grouping what is called the association of candidates. This should be very simple. Everyone who is running for office, each candidate, should be placed on the ballot in their own position through a random draw."
..... The design process felt like a :bait and switch" said Jesse Burns, execute director of the League of Woman voters of New Jersey.
..... "Thousands of people called, testified, emailed and advocates and the public negotiated that Assembly version in good faith," she said.
..... "Then all of a sudden this senate version with these left field amendments is introduced with very little time for the public to comment on these amendments," Senate President Nick Scutari said when the Assembly passed its bill that lawmakers weren't "going to rush it" and that the Assembly had a "pretty good framework" but he wasn't sure an eventual bill in his chamber would be exactly the same, Last March, 2[204] Scutari, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughin, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco and Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio issued a statement saying they were open to redesigning New Jersey's ballots that give preferential position to candidates supported by county political machines after now Sean tor Andy Kim challenged the constitutionally of the county line design in federal court.
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The legislative leaders said at the time they have "listened to the public debate" about the ballot deigns and there is a "longstanding precedent that the Legislature has the authority to determine the law regarding ballot design and the appropriate discretion sued by county clerks."
..... "we are committed to beginning a public process on ballot design in New Jersey, including a through and thoughtful review of other states, as well as a process that involves input firm the public, the statement said.
..... Kim said in a statement
Thursday. [02/20/2025]
that the "bill being considered today in Trenton falls short of what New Jersey voters deserve."
..... "We need uniform randomized computer or machine drawings. No placement privatization. No physical grouping on the ballot of candidates as running mates. Just fairness," he said. "Candidates can campaign together as running mates, but giving them physical placement bracketed together on the ballot will put pressure on other candidates to have running mates."
..... U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi ordered that the June democratic [2024] primary use office-block-style ballots, and settlements with each county clerk said that style will be sued uniformly for all primary ballots.