Clerks seek to dismiss line lawsuit, citing new ballot design law

Two Democratic county clerks have moved to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of county organization lines, claiming that a new law mandating office block ballots makes the legal challenge moot.

In court papers filed tonight, Joanne Rajoppi of Union and John Hogan of Bergen also argue that their previous designs of primary election ballots were legal and their counties should not be on the hook for legal fees in Andy Kim’s lawsuit to eliminate lines.

In a filing by Angelo Genova and other attorneys, the clerks claim “the enactment of the revised ballot design statute clearly renders the complaint, and all of plaintiffs’ claims contained therein, moot.

“The court must dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” the filing states.  “Because plaintiffs have accused the clerk defendants of nothing more than abiding by a duly enacted New Jersey statute, which has never been held to be facially unconstitutional, such fees, even if theoretically recoverable, should be paid by the state.”

In September, U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi approved settlements today ordering county clerks in Burlington and Middlesex Counties to permanently do away with the county line, the unique New Jersey system that allows county parties to put their endorsed candidates in shared rows or columns on primary ballots.

Quraishi had previously struck down the county line for this year’s Democratic primaries specifically, but that decision didn’t apply to future years.

Litigation over the county line has been ongoing since 2020, when former congressional candidate Christine Conforti and several others filed a lawsuit alleging that it provided unconstitutional advantages to the candidates it was conferred upon. That case languished in the federal courts system for several years without a clear resolution on the horizon.

Early last year, Kim, then a candidate for U.S. Senate, jumpstarted the process when he filed a preliminary injunction asking Quraishi to overturn the line for this year’s primary, arguing that his Senate campaign would be irreparably harmed if the line remained in place. Kim won his case, and every Democrat around the state ran on line-free ballots this year; Quraishi’s order did not apply to Republicans, since they were not involved as plaintiffs.

While the Kim case only affected the 2024 primary, Quraishi’s decision specifically laid out the ways he believed the line was unconstitutional, essentially guaranteeing that when he eventually ruled on the Conforti case, it would not be in favor of the county clerks, who by virtue of their role were tasked with defending the line in court.