Earlier this year, Congressman Andy Kim filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the New Jersey primary election ballot design disenfranchises voters.
In March, in the matter of Andy Kim v. Christine Giordano Hanlon et al., the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey declared the state’s primary ballot design is very likely unconstitutional and granted mandatory preliminary injunctive relief to eliminate the ballot design based on the county political party line for the 2024 New Jersey Democratic primary elections. County Clerks appealed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the decision of the District Court.
While there continue to be further appeals as to whether this applies to both political parties equally for this upcoming primary election, these court decisions necessitate the immediate redesign of the county ballot from the county organizational line to an office block design, which is used by all of the other states in the nation.
For many decades, New Jersey primary elections bracketed political organizational candidates together for all offices in what has been colloquially known as “the line.” Advocates have long argued this ballot design provides an unfair advantage to endorsed candidates. A NJSpotlightNews article recently shared pictures of what the block ballot will look like for June’s primary election.
Contact: Paul Penna, Senior Legislative Analyst, ppenna@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x110.