Federal Judge Throws Out New Jersey Primary Ballot Design After Lawsuit by Rep. Andy Kim

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 15: Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) speaks during a rally and news conference ahead of a House vote on health care and prescription drug legislation in the Rayburn Room at the U.S. Capitol May 15, 2019 in Washington, DC. The bicameral group of Democrats urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to bring the Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act up for a vote in the Senate. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A federal judge has ruled that New Jersey’s unique ballot design that gives party-backed candidates an advantage will be scrapped in the June Senate primary.

The preliminary injunction—granted by U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi, who was appointed by President Joe Biden— is a win for Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), the favorite to win the Democrat nomination and general election in the U.S. Senate race in the Garden State.

Mr. Kim filed the lawsuit against the state with fellow Democrat candidates Carolyn Rush and Sarah Schoengood, who are running for the U.S. House of Representatives.

The ballot design, known as the county line system, allows county party officials to more prominently display the names of favored candidates on the ballot.

This system, noted Mr. Quraishi, is “designed by columns or rows, rather than by office sought; positions candidates on the ballot automatically based upon a ballot draw among candidates for a different office; [and] places candidates such that there is an incongruous separation from other candidates running for the same office.”

Additionally, wrote Mr. Quraishi in his injunction, the county line system “places candidates underneath another candidate running for the same office, where the rest of the candidates are listed horizontally, or to the side of another candidate running for the same office, where the rest of the candidates are listed vertically,” and it brackets candidates together on the ballot “such that candidates for different offices are featured on the same column (or row) of the ballot.”

Victory for Kim

Mr. Quraishi ordered the state to issue a ballot that is “organized by office sought (commonly known as a ‘office-block ballot,’) rather than by column or row, and which implements for each office on the ballot, a randomized ballot order system (e.g. random draw) which affords each candidate for the same office an equal chance at obtaining the first ballot position.”

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Mr. Kim celebrated the preliminary injunction, which is in effect only for the state’s June 4 primary.

“YES! For the people!” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who has been in the Senate since 2006 and in Congress overall since 1993, is up for reelection but will not run as a Democrat after being indicted on corruption-related charges. He said that if he’s exonerated at his trial, he will run as an independent in November.

Under the county line system, Mr. Kim and New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy—who dropped out of the Senate race on March 24—were each endorsed by their county parties.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin signaled that he would not defend the state’s primary ballot system against the legal challenge.

In a March 17 letter to Judge Quraishi, Mr. Platkin wrote that “the challenged statutes” regarding the state’s primary ballot design “are unconstitutional” and therefore his office “will not be defending them.”

In the letter, Mr. Platkin explained his reasoning.

“New Jersey’s system of ballot design for primary elections is unique across the Nation. The system, referred to as the ‘county line,’ is the result of intersecting statutes, judicial decisions, and discretionary practices that have developed over time,” he wrote.

“First, N.J. Stat. Ann. § 19:49-2 provides both for the use of a grid ballot for primary election ballots voted via voting machine and establishes that candidates may bracket together on a single line,” he wrote. “Second, N.J. Stat. Ann. § 19:23-26.1 provides special rules for primary ballot positions of United States Senate and Governor candidates. Finally, N.J. Stat. Ann. § 19:23-24 sets the general rules for random ballot draws to determine the ballot positions of primary candidates.

“Conditions have subsequently altered the real-world impact of those statutes,” he said, noting that the bracketing law prohibited New Jersey’s political parties from endorsing primary candidates until the Supreme Court found the prohibition unconstitutional in 1989.

He went on to say that the record in the case shows an “electoral advantage” for candidates who bracket together and a “corresponding disadvantage” for those who do not.

In contrast, he said the use of the office-block ballot design “avoids these concerns for candidates and voters alike, while still communicating candidates’ legitimate associational interests. Office-block ballots permit candidates and factions to associate and to communicate those associations to voters via shared slogans, which may be printed on the ballot alongside candidate names.”

State Should Be ‘Neutral Referee’

The lawsuit, filed in February, claimed the state “has an obligation to serve as a neutral referee in administering elections” and that “the integrity of self-government depends on it.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit, arguing that the state’s unique primary “county line” ballot design “upsets the competitive mechanisms of the electoral process.”

The ACLU further argued that it is through this New Jersey-specific ballot design that “the government manipulates election outcomes by providing preferential treatment to candidates who have won the endorsement of county committees of state-recognized political parties.”

In doing this, the ACLU contended that the New Jersey government “engages in viewpoint discrimination and undermines every primary voter’s right to cast a free and effective ballot.”

The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants states the power to administer elections.