New Jersey\u2019s unique way of displaying county-endorsed candidates on the ballot has been struck down by a federal judge, after a lawsuit by Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who is running for Senate, and two other Democrats running for Congress, who called the design unfair and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
New Jersey\u2019s ballot design process is unlike any other in the nation, and it allows parties to place their endorsed candidates in a specific portion of the ballot known as \u201cthe line.\u201d Candidates running without their party\u2019s endorsement appear in a different section of the ballot, farther down from where voters can see their names.<\/p>\n
In his lawsuit, Kim claimed that design \u201ccynically\u201d manipulates voters and are \u201canathema to fair elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi sided with Kim and the other plaintiffs and said the system of \u201cbracketing\u201d county-endorsed candidates gave them an unfair advantage over their challengers. The ruling will force New Jersey to redesign its ballots ahead of the June primary.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnbracketed candidates tend to occupy obscure parts of the ballot that appear less important and are harder to locate, and may be grouped in a column with other candidates with whom they did not want to be associated,\u201d Quraishi wrote in his 49-page ruling, released Friday.<\/p>\n
He also wrote that the harm caused by the ballot design \u2014 which is used in 19 of the state\u2019s 21 counties \u2014 far outweighs the challenge of changing the ballot before the primary. Quraishi noted that of two people who testified, one for the plaintiffs and one for the defendants, both said changing the ballot could be done in time for voting.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s decision is a victory for a fairer, more democratic politics in New Jersey,\u201d Kim said in a statement Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s a victory built from the incredible grassroots work of activists across our state who saw an undemocratic system marginalizing the voices of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible Action, a progressive organization, suggested the ruling could have sweeping impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a brand new day in New Jersey, one where the people, not political machines, decide the best candidate to carry the banner for their party,\u201d Levin said. \u201cFor decades, the New Jersey political system was rigged in favor of \u2018line\u2019 candidates and made it nearly impossible for candidates to primary incumbent party-favorites. It was a thorn in democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling came after the office of New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin last week called the ballot design \u201cunconstitutional\u201d and declined to defend the state against Kim\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an exceptional case, justifying the Attorney General\u2019s exceptionally rare decision not to defend the constitutionality of the challenged statutes,\u201d a letter to Quraishi said.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThese features of grid balloting and bracketing also have allowed unbracketed candidates to be placed at the end of a ballot with multiple blank spaces separating them from their competitors, which creates the phenomenon known as \u2018ballot Siberia.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim is running for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat held by embattled Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. The senator has been accused by federal prosecutors of extortion, obstruction of justice and receiving bribes in exchange for helping the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Menendez pleaded not guilty and has not publicly announced whether he will seek reelection.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, one of Kim\u2019s leading opponents in the primary, New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, suspended her campaign, significantly boosting Kim\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n
Julia Sass Rubin, a professor at Rutgers University who filed an expert brief to the court, said in an interview last week that a ruling forcing a change in ballots would be \u201can earthquake\u201d and create \u201ca fundamental shift in how New Jersey politics operates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the last of the [political] machine states, and the machine relies on the county line to stay in control,\u201d Rubin told The Washington Post last week. \u201cIf you displease the people who decide who gets the line,\u201d you could lose your office, she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
New Jersey\u2019s unique way of displaying county-endorsed candidates on the ballot has been struck down by a federal judge, after a lawsuit by Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who is running for Senate, and two other Democrats running for Congress, who called the design unfair and unconstitutional. New Jersey\u2019s ballot design process is unlike any other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}