A draft of proposed legislation to redesign New Jersey’s primary election ballots has raised concerns that it may preserve mechanisms that benefit political insiders, as critics argue the process appears to be an attempt to protect the
The legislation, prepared at the request of the Assembly Select Committee on Ballot Design, would introduce significant changes to ballot formatting but also include provisions that some claim could leave room for manipulation of election outcomes by entrenched political players.
At the core of the draft bill is a proposal to arrange primary election ballots in an “office-block” style, with candidates for the same office listed together. Candidates would be allowed to group themselves with a running mate by surrounding their names with brackets, a practice that could help identify paired candidates and potentially boost the chances of those running together under a common slogan.
The draft bill also gives county clerks broad discretion over the layout and design of the ballots, including the option to use a randomized rotation system for listing candidates. However, this system would be dependent on unanimous consent from the political party’s Board of Elections in each county.
The decision to rotate candidate names would, therefore, rest in the hands of party leadership in each county, leading to concerns that insiders could still influence ballot design to their advantage.
According to the draft legislation, “a rotation algorithm could be used to rotate the order in which the names of candidates will appear on the ballot.”
Voters would receive ballots in different orders, with the aim of ensuring that no candidate has a consistent advantage from their position on the list.
However, the requirement for unanimous consent from party boards leaves open the possibility that local political elites could decide against using randomized rotations, effectively nullifying any fairness in ballot positioning.
from the outset, the panel inspired criticism.
“Giving inadequate notice for both hearings so far and holding the first hearing with public participation less than two days after one of the most consequential elections of our times is undemocratic and does not inspire confidence,” said Nuzhat Chowdhury, a senior counsel with the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
“The Legislature has been controlled for so long by political establishment power brokers that our watchdogs seem to have forgotten how to bark,” said progressive activist Lisa McCormick. “The only things these lawmakers seem to have accomplished is finding ways to keep cheating and negate the ability of voters to participate in a fair and free election.”
The draft bill also increases the length of permissible ballot slogans from six to seven words, allowing candidates to promote their campaigns with slightly more visibility. It further permits candidates to label themselves as incumbents on the ballot, which could give them an advantage in terms of voter recognition, especially when running for re-election.
“Anything that’s not a clean ballot in terms of just a list of candidates in an office block style — nothing differentiating them — is not ideal,” said Julia Sass Rubin, a Rutgers associate professor who has done extensive research on the ballot design’s impact.
The office-block design would group candidates for a single office in a designated block, and each candidate would be listed in the same font size—12-point type—ensuring a consistent visual appearance.
Although the bill stipulates that all candidates must be treated equally in the rotation system, meaning each would appear in the first position the same number of times across various election districts, McCormick warned that population varies among precincts, making some more valuable than others.
“Americans must rise to the responsibility of citizenship,” said McCormick, a longtime critic of rigging the ballot who took four of ten votes in the 2018 Democratic primary away from corrupt former US Senator Bob Menendez. “In the coming weeks, the public must closely monitor the debate, or give up hope that new legislation will strike a balance between reforming the ballot design system and ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to compete.”
While the intent appears to be to prevent any candidate from benefiting unfairly from their placement, the combination of bracketing candidates and allowing party insiders to control the rotation process could still influence election outcomes.
The draft bill comes amid a broader effort by state lawmakers to comply with a court order issued in April 2024. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that required a new ballot structure for New Jersey’s 2024 Democratic Primary Election.
The court had determined that the previous county-line ballot system, which grouped candidates by political party, unfairly favored those with party endorsements.
While sponsored claim the new design was intended to remove such biases, some critics argue that the proposed changes still preserve mechanisms that could allow political parties to maintain undue influence.
Senator-elect Andy Kim, who joined the lawsuit that led to the court order, has expressed concerns about the new proposal and urged the committee to eliminate all potential advantages for candidates with political party backing.
“Every candidate should be treated the same, no placement prioritization,” Kim said. “We need uniform, randomized computer or machine drawings, potentially with a rotational system, to determine each candidate’s position within the office block. No emphasis added, no markings, no highlighting, no bolding, no asterisks, no special symbols or extraneous texts, no manipulation, no indication of incumbency, no physical grouping on the ballot.”
Kim’s plea for a truly fair ballot design was echoed by many members of the public who testified during the committee’s hearings.
They expressed concerns that any design allowing candidates to group themselves together or use slogans could still give some candidates an unfair edge.
Specifically, they called for a simpler, office-block design with no special formatting to indicate party affiliation or endorsements, and with randomized candidate order determined by an impartial system.
The Assembly Select Committee on Ballot Design—which convened to explore alternatives to the county-line ballot system—has heard input from various election experts and stakeholders.
While committee members have not yet finalized a bill, the draft proposal offers a glimpse of the direction lawmakers are heading. Critics argue that allowing local political organizations to control key aspects of ballot design is a step backward, as it leaves too much power in the hands of party insiders.
The proposed legislation could still undergo changes before being voted on in the Assembly on December 19, 2024. However, some lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, have signaled that they may not fully adopt the proposal as it stands. “We are committed to ensuring that the process is fair and that the voices of voters are heard,” Coughlin said in a statement.
It remains to be seen whether the State Senate will approve the Assembly’s draft legislation.
Senate President Nicholas Scutari has not indicated whether the upper chamber will hold hearings on the matter. If the bill passes the Assembly and is approved by the Senate, it could become law before the 2025 primary election.
However, many observers remain concerned that the proposed changes may still leave room for manipulation by the political establishment, undermining the goal of fairer, more equitable elections in New Jersey.