Ballot design bill may drop bracketing

Facing resistance from lawmakers fearful of progressive activists, the Assembly Select Committee on Ballot Design is considering dropping a proposal to place brackets around the names of running mates seeking the same office in primary elections.

A plan to allow candidates filing a joint petition to associate with each other on the ballot will remain, just without the physical brackets around their names, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak.

This is the second significant change since the New Jersey Globe released details of the draft bill late Friday night.  Legislators are also moving away from a section in the proposed legislation that would give candidates seeking re-election the option of identifying themselves as incumbents on the ballot.

Brackets and incumbency designations could have faced legal obstacles: U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi, who is hearing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of county lines, has indicated that ballots should have no discernable markings that give any candidate an advantage.

The draft bill calls for office block ballots that end the practice of giving party-endorsed candidates preferential ballot placement and an option for county clerks to rotate names on ballots by municipal election districts.

The bill standardizes the font sizes of names on the ballot and allows county clerks to design a horizontal or vertical ballot based on their own preference.