The panel will hear from national election experts, clerks, and others as lawmakers weigh the future of New Jersey’s primary ballots. (Daniella Heminghaus for New Jersey Monitor)
New Jersey lawmakers will hold the first in a series of hearings to design new primary ballots Tuesday after a federal judge earlier this year found the longstanding county-line ballot system to be unconstitutional.
The first hearing of the 12-member Assembly select committee on ballot design will see testimony from state election officials and national groups on balloting practices across the state and how New Jersey’s election infrastructure must adapt to accommodate a new ballot design.
“These hearings are an opportunity to gather comprehensive feedback, not only from the public but also from the professionals who conduct our elections and safeguard their integrity,” said Assemblyman Al Barlas (R-Essex), the committee’s Republican co-chair. “Getting ballot design right is crucial, especially with statewide elections on the horizon over the next two years.”
The hearings follow a March order from U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi that instructed county clerks to print office-block ballots, which group candidates by office sought, for June’s Democratic primaries in place of county-line ballots that had clustered candidates backed by party officials.
Quraishi’s order was a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by Rep. Andy Kim and two others who alleged the county-line system gave certain candidates an improper, unconstitutional advantage by giving them better ballot placement. Since Quraishi’s order, which was upheld by a federal appeals court, several counties named as defendants have settled the dispute and agreed to stop using county-line ballots.
Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Passaic), the committee’s Democratic co-chair, said the panel will later hear from others statutorily involved in the balloting process and from party leaders.
“And, of course, you want the input of the voters,” Wimberly said.
Tuesday’s meeting is focused on feedback from clerks and practices in other states. The committee, which was created by a resolution the Assembly approved Monday, is slated to receive testimony from voters at a future hearing.
Lawmakers have so far given little indication of how primary ballots might change from the office-block design used in Democratic races in June, though both co-chairs indicated on-ballot slogans that can show a party’s endorsement are likely to remain even if they no longer serve as a basis to group candidates into single rows or columns.
“It may well be that we do block balloting and nothing more,” Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) told the New Jersey Monitor. “Maybe we do things outside of that. Maybe there are things deduced from the testimony from the clerks or from whomever else.”
The co-chairs added that party organizations should maintain an ability to champion their favored candidates off the ballot.
New Jersey case law protects political parties’ ability to make endorsements as a matter of free speech, though Quraishi’s order blocked ballot designs that intrinsically favor such candidates.
“What you don’t want, in my opinion, is to lose the ability of a political party to endorse candidates that they believe are best suited to represent them,” said Barlas, who is Essex County’s Republican chairman. “Whoever wins wins. That’s a whole different story — that’s up to the voters.”
It’s not clear whether the Senate will join the lower chamber in holding hearings about new ballot designs. Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) on Monday indicated he did not plan to convene a select committee on the matter.
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