NJ Primary Ballots Bamboozle Voters With ‘The Line,’ Experts Say

Eric Kiefer
Updated ·5 min read

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Are you voting in New Jersey’s primary election this year? Pay attention to your ballot and you’ll likely catch one of the oldest tricks in the Garden State’s political playbook, advocates say: “The Line.”

This year, due to the coronavirus, New Jersey will hold its primary election on July 7 via mail-in ballots. READ MORE: NJ's Primary Delayed Due To Coronavirus

Many residents have been worrying about the reliability of mail-in ballots during the COVID-19 crisis. But there’s a much deeper problem that needs to be put in the spotlight, some advocates allege … the ballot itself.

“The primary ballots that millions of New Jersey residents use look nothing like the primary ballots used in every other state in the country,” Rutgers University professor Julia Sass Rubin says.

Rubin said that New Jersey’s primary ballots “violate the rules of good ballot design” and confuse and mislead voters.

Here’s how it works:

“Primary ballots used by the majority of New Jersey voters are organized around a slate of candidates endorsed by either the Democratic or the Republican Party. These slates of candidates are known as the ‘county line’ or the ‘party line.’”

Instead of organizing primary ballots around the office being sought and clearly indicating which candidates are running for each position, most counties in New Jersey organize the primary ballots around a slate of party-endorsed candidates. As a result, voters often have a hard time determining which candidates are running for each office, giving a huge advantage to those who land on the “county line.”

How big is the benefit? No state legislative incumbent on the line had lost a primary election in New Jersey between 2009 and 2018, according to a recent analysis by the Communications Workers of America.

Watch videos that explain more about “The Line” below.

“In New Jersey, primary election ballots have been a source of confusion and have been transformed into a political weapon,” said Brett Pugach, an election law attorney with Bromberg Law LLC.

According to Pugach, New Jersey’s ballots are so unique, they’ve inspired their own lexicon, including terms such as “bracketing,” “preferential ballot draw,” “Ballot Siberia” and “phantom candidates.”

The irony is, none of it’s necessary, Pugach said.

“This is gerrymandering of the ballot, a manipulative tactic used to pre-determine election outcomes and diminish the voice and will of voters,” said Jesse Burns, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey.

“We cannot stand by while the corrupting influence of power subverts our democracy,” Burns said. “We demand better for New Jersey voters.”

In a report released last week titled “Toeing the Line,” nonprofit advocacy group New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) urged lawmakers to change the state’s primary ballots to resemble those in other states.

This way, voters – not political insiders – will be the ones who decide the winners on election day, the group said.

“For New Jersey’s elected officials to truly represent their communities, it is essential that primary ballots be impartial,” NJPP President Brandon McKoy said. “As this report shows, this is unfortunately not the case.”

Read the full report here.

Some candidates running for office this year have also blasted New Jersey’s primary ballots, including John Flora, a teacher who is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 10th District.

In New Jersey, it's almost impossible to win an election without being on the party line, said Flora, who is vying for the Democratic Party nomination.

"Big party machines that are supposed to represent party voters in the county use every trick to make sure they retain power," Flora said. "That is dangerous for democracy and a Petrie dish which promotes corruption."

‘THE LINE’: HOW IT LOOKS

As an example, the NJPP used a ballot from the 2018 New Jersey Democratic primary ballot in Camden County (click image to enlarge).

“The nine county line candidates are in column 2,” the NJPP explained. “The remaining 15 candidates are scattered across the other eight, mostly empty, columns. There is no obvious logic as to why each of the non-endorsed candidates is in a particular column. Column 1 includes a single candidate for the U.S. Senate. Columns 3 through 8 include eleven candidates for Camden County Freeholder. Column 9 includes two candidates for the US House of Representatives and a candidate for the Camden City Council.”

The NJPP continued:

“This ballot design — particularly listing candidates for the same office in different columns that may not even be adjacent, and candidates for different offices in the same column — makes it much more challenging for voters to determine which candidates are running for each office. Such a ballot design results in voters not realizing that some positions are contested or disqualifying their vote by mistakenly voting for too many candidates for a given position.[4] It also encourages voters to pick the candidates on the county line — an easy to find and visually consistent option. The county line is further advantaged by the placement of better-known candidates, such as those running for president, U.S. senator, or governor, at the top of the line and the inclusion of candidates for most or all of the offices on the ballot.”

Watch a Zoom conference spearheaded by the NJPP on the issue below.

Recently, Essex County-based SOMA Action and Eugene Mazo, a professor at Rutgers Law School, also held a virtual conference about “The Law and Politics of Ballot Access In New Jersey,” which also featured an explanation about The Line.

Watch it below.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

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This article originally appeared on the Montclair Patch