Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin holds the gavel before starting the body’s session at the Statehouse in Trenton on Sept. 26, 2024. (Photo by Mary Iuvone for New Jersey Monitor)
New Jersey’s county line is one step closer to history, with Assembly lawmakers Thursday approving a bill that would retool New Jersey’s primary ballots in a 70-1 vote.
But the measure could face additional changes when it eventually moves through the Senate, which has not yet taken up the lower chamber’s bill.
The legislation, backed by bipartisan sponsors and the product of Assembly select committee hearings, would mandate the state’s primaries be run on office-block ballots, which group candidates by the office they are seeking, and jettison New Jersey’s long-standing county line, a unique ballot design that groups disparate candidates if they have received backing from party officials.
Progressive activists have for years tried to end the county line, which they say improperly gives party-backed candidates better ballot placement.
“This day has come about because advocates have, through organizing and litigation, successfully changed the way politics work in a state that has for too long been controlled by political insiders,” said Antoinette Miles, state director for the New Jersey Working Families Party.
Advocates celebrated the bill as an end to the county-line system but said it falls short in other areas, like the absence of a mandate that ballot draws to be conducted electronically. It would also allow candidates for certain offices, like Assembly, to be bracketed together on the ballot.
The bill still faces an uncertain future despite its support in the Assembly. The state Senate has not moved or even introduced a companion to the Assembly bill.
Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) said he expects his chamber would likely make some technical changes to the bill when it takes it up.
“We’re going to take our time and get it right and then send it back. It may be exactly the way they gave it to us, but if it isn’t, it isn’t,” Scutari told reporters Thursday.
Lawmakers began discussing changes to how our primary ballots are designed after a lawsuit filed by Sen. Andy Kim (D) in February challenged the county-line system as unconstitutional (at the time, Kim was still a member of the House). U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi, who is overseeing the case, issued a preliminary decision saying the county line would likely be found unconstitutional at trial.
Lawmakers raising bar to get on ballot
The Assembly, in a 47-27 vote that fell along party lines, also gave approval to a bill that would more than double the number of signatures needed to get onto New Jersey ballots.
Earlier Thursday, the bill cleared the Senate’s state government committee, where Sen. Jim Beach (D-Camden) — the bill’s sponsor, the committee’s chair, and the only member present for its Thursday hearing — called the measure an effort to keep frivolous candidates off the ballot.
“I think that it’s important that we have serious candidates, and it’s important that we’re not experiencing clutter on the ballots,” he said. “The ballots, in my opinion, are much more confusing than they used to be.”
The bill would require candidates seeking the nomination of a major political party for statewide office, like governor or U.S. Senate, to obtain 2,500 signatures to get on the ballot, up from 1,000 under current law.
Signature requirements for major-party congressional candidates would rise from 200 to 500, while legislative office-seekers would be required to collect 250 signatures instead of 100.
Statewide minor party candidates would see the number of signatures they need to secure a spot on the general election ballot rise from 800 to 2,000, while the cutoff for other independent office seekers would jump to 250, from 100.
Signature requirements for partisan offices at the municipal level would differ based on population, ranging from 100 signatures for municipalities with populations of 50,000 or more to five signatures in municipalities with no more than 2,500 residents.
A single witness argued against the bill, charging higher thresholds would entrench incumbents and depress participation.
“While this bill may attempt to save voters from ballot clutter and frivolous candidates and ensure the viability and support of those candidates, higher signature thresholds in the political process will ultimately lead to less participation in the political process. It limits access for independents, reinforcing established politicians,” said Lana Leguia, vice president of political affairs for the New Jersey Libertarian Party.
Beach denied the bill is an effort to limit primary challenges following the death of the county line.
From the moment Beach gaveled his committee into order Thursday to the moment he closed the hearing, he was the only member present in the chamber.
Sens. Vince Polistina (R-Atlantic), John McKeon (D-Essex), and Scutari cast votes in absentia without entering the room.
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