On ballot design bill, legislators and advocates agree tweaks are needed

An Assembly committee unveiled a draft bill to overhaul New Jersey’s primary election system, and activists and legislators alike agree that adjustments are needed before a vote is taken.

The bill, which was discussed by the Assembly Select Committee on Ballot Design on Thursday, was the culmination of five hearings by the bipartisan committee. The bill would codify office-block ballots, as opposed to the county line, a ballot design system that once formed the core of New Jersey political power.

The bill would also require ballots to meet certain design standards, allow candidates in multi-seat elections to “associate” with and be placed next to their running mates (though without visible brackets), and bars all slogans that include the name of other candidates on the primary ballot.

The 12-member committee’s Thursday hearing featured testimony from dozens of advocates, most of whom applauded the decision to end the county line and called on the legislators to rework the bill’s language on slogans and ballot randomization.

Wimberly told reporters that the committee will vote on the legislation Monday.

At Thursday’s hearing Kate Delany, the president of the South Jersey Progressive Democrats, criticized statute 3c, which, as written, would bar candidates from using a party’s name in their slogan unless they have the consent of the county party. Committee co-Chairs Al Barlas and Benjie Wimberly said they don’t intend to prevent candidates from using “Democrat” or “Republican” in their slogans, and the committee will spend Friday either adjusting or eliminating the statute. Barlas said the provision was meant to prevent nefarious actors from misusing the names of political parties.

“This is a language issue that we have to get worked out, that’s why we’re not voting this bill out today,” Barlas said.

Legislators are tasked with creating a new ballot system after U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi issued a March ruling that struck down the county line system, which grouped party-endorsed candidates together. Most county clerks have since settled the lawsuit in agreements that include the elimination of the county line.

Thursday’s version of the bill would allow clerks to essentially draw based on association rather than by individual candidate — if one candidate is picked for the first slot, their running mate would automatically receive the subsequent slot to create a “grouping” effect. New Jersey Working Families Party Director Antoinette Miles said the legislation should not allow for the “grouping” of running mates within an office block, arguing it creates a visual cue that can lead to bias.

“What it is is allowing for running mates to create a coattails effect,” Miles told reporters after the hearing. “It gives a visual nudge to the voter that these candidates are together.”

Scott Salmon, an elections attorney who works with Jersey City Mayor and antiestablishment gubernatorial candidate Steven Fulop, said the draft as written is “almost certainly unlawful.” He criticized the grouping statute, saying it violates the order of Judge Zahid Quraishi, who ruled earlier this year there must be a separate drawing for each candidate.

“It’s essentially a way of bracketing them without actually saying, ‘We’re bracketing them,’” Salmon told the New Jersey Globe.

Another provision Salmon finds unacceptable is a statute that bans candidate slogans from including the name of any candidate who appears on the ballot in the same primary election for a different office. Salmon wrote he believes there is “no possible way that isn’t targeted” at Fulop, who has recruited a slate of Assembly candidates to challenge established members of the Assembly in the primaries.

Salmon said the provision sparks “major associational rights issues,” while Wimberly said the statute isn’t targeted at anybody and is instead intended to create a clear ballot.

“You are going to have state committee members’ names on [the ballot], you’re going to have county committee members on it,” Wimberly told reporters after the hearing. “It would be a very, very hard read.”

The bill has a long way to go before it becomes law — it must still pass through committee Monday, and the state Senate has yet to get its hands dirty with major ballot-reform legislation.