TRENTON, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a new ballot format, advancing a bill that would set the new design permanently. It replaces the old “county line” ballot, which was seen as giving unfair advantage to certain candidates, but some senators say the new plan is far from perfect.
New Jersey party insiders could hand-pick candidates to be placed in a prominent column on the ballot, leaving candidates not endorsed by the political machine isolated in less prominent positions.
As a U.S. Senate candidate last year, Sen. Andy Kim challenged it in federal court, and a U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi ordered clerks to stop using the county-line ballot. Quraishi also made clear demands to eliminate institutional ballot advantages going forward.
The state Senate committee voted unanimously to advance the bill on Thursday, with some members acknowledging it wasn’t perfect and amendments may be needed. An Assembly committee advanced a similar bill in December.
However, Kim says, the solution adopted by state lawmakers doesn’t go far enough to make the ballot fair, because it doesn’t require random computerized drawings for placement, and it still leaves open the option for some candidates to group themselves together.
Micah Rasmussen from Rider University says he expects legal challenges.
“Critics will go back to Judge Quraishi and say that this new law doesn’t follow the standard that you set forth.”
He says one of the judge’s clear orders was that there should be a separate drawing for each office and candidate.
“So to me, this bill pretty clearly conflicts with that because if you are running with someone else and you’ve requested to be drawn with someone else, then there is not a separate drawing for every office and candidate.”
The bill needs to be signed into law before the June primary, otherwise counties would likely use the same office block ballot format as last year.