Progressive leader criticizes ‘bracketing’ provision in ballot bill

The director of New Jersey’s Working Families Party said the Assembly’s ballot design legislation is a good start but not enough. 

A special Assembly committee voted to advance an overhaul of the state’s primary election system Monday, approving a bill that would eliminate the county line in favor of office-block ballots. Antoinette Miles, the state director of the Garden State’s Working Families Party, criticized provisions allowing associated candidates to be grouped next to each other on primary ballots.

Miles argued that allowing the grouping, or “bracketing,” puts a thumb on the scale.

The bracketing statute would allow clerks to essentially draw (and place) running mates together. Federal judge Zahid Quraishi ruled last year that clerks must draw a ballot slot for each candidate for each office in last year’s Democratic primary.

“While the Assembly Special Committee has amended this legislation in response to advocates’ concerns on slogan restrictions, the bill passed out of committees today still has fundamental issues,” Miles said in a statement Monday. “It still allows for the bracketing of running mates for multi-member offices, which, again, no other state allows.”

The law does not allow for physical brackets to be placed around candidates.

Miles applauded the vote to codify office-block ballots, saying “years of sustained advocacy” forced the hand of Trenton lawmakers (the county line was barred from last year’s Democratic primary after Quraishi ruled the system was likely unconstitutional).

The Assembly will likely vote on the bill on Thursday, but the Senate has yet to take action on major ballot-related legislation.

Assembly legislators amended the bill over the weekend to adjust language on slogan regulations.

Miles called on legislators to amend the bill to require a computerized draw for ballot positions.

“Before a final vote on the bill, we call on the Assembly to adopt best practices, like a computerized draw, to make our state a national leader in fair elections,” Miles said in a release.

Scott Salmon, an attorney for Jersey City Mayor and anti-establishment gubernatorial candidate Steven Fulop, said Monday the bill still threatens to violate the associational rights of candidates. Salmon previously criticized a provision that bars a candidate’s slogan from including the name of another candidate on the primary ballot.

Salmon wrote last week that 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 ballot design committee co-chair Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson) said the statute isn’t targeted at anybody and is instead intended to create a clear ballot.

Updated: Dec. 17, 3:46 p.m.