Lawmakers say ballot redesign bill will see changes before vote

A special legislative committee focused on ballot design held what may be its last hearing Thursday before the panel votes to advance a bill codifying new ballot rules Monday, with much focus left to bracketing and a controversial provision that lawmakers said would not make it into the final version of the legislation.

As written, the bill would bar candidates from using the names of major political parties in their slogans without the consent of county party organizations in their county. Advocates chaffed at that proposed restriction, calling it an effort to revive the controversial county-line system in all but name.

Kate Delaney, president of South Jersey Progressive Democrats, noted the provision would bar candidates backed by her group from using its name as their slogan.

“This would, in essence, do what the line has done all these years: Set up one side of Democrats as the real Democrats and the others, in some way, as a cheap knockoff version,” Delaney said.

Assemblyman Al Barlas (R-Essex), the panel’s Republican co-chair, said that language was meant to preserve the slogans of existing groups — political parties and others — and would see changes before the bill came up for a vote on Monday.

“The intent here is to preserve those who maintain certain names … and also to ensure that folks that may be nefarious in intent don’t try to portray themselves as something that they are not,” Barlas said.

The committee is tasked with exploring options for updated ballot designs after a federal judge ruled New Jersey’s system of county lines, which group candidates backed by party organizations on primary ballots, is likely unconstitutional and ordered the use of office-block ballots, which group candidates by the office they are seeking instead.

Most witnesses who spoke Thursday urged the committee to rewrite provisions in the bill that would allow candidates in races with multiple seats — for Assembly, county commission, and certain local offices, among others — to be placed on the ballot as a group rather than individually.

Henal Patel, law and policy director for the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, noted that experts in cases challenging county-line ballots presented significant evidence about the negative impact that grouping candidates has on voter choice.

“Any new ballot design should not allow for any grouping or association on the ballot,” Patel said. “New Jersey’s new primary ballot design should aim to be neutral.”

Patel and others said ballot draws should be conducted randomly for each candidate and election clerks should shift candidates’ ballot position in each voting precinct to ensure none enjoy a benefit from being placed at the top of their office block.

The state should move to modernize its ballot draw process and replace hand draws used to determine ballot positions under current law, said Peter Chen, a senior policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective.

“Whether or not that randomization, rotation goes to a precinct level, I think we can say holding the box over your head and shaking it is not the most efficient way to do this,” Chen said.

Jill LaZare, a former State Senate and Assembly candidate who is now president of New Jersey’s branch of the National Organization of Women, argued against rotating ballot positions, charging it would make it more difficult for candidates to inform voters how they can find them when voting.

Though lawmakers did not indicate whether they would move away from allowing bracketing, Barlas said because of procurement rules, computerized ballot draws and rotating ballot positions would not be feasible for the state’s 2025 primaries. Next year, the governor’s race and all 80 Assembly seats will be on the ballot.

Advocates praised other provisions in the bill, lauding lawmakers for provisions barring incongruous ballot positions for candidates seeking the same office — a practice called ballot Siberia under the county-line system — and barring markers denoting a candidate’s incumbency.

“I appreciate the effort here to do the work to get this right. There are some things that are right, and there are still some things we think should be improved on. And we appreciate the opportunity that this is for discussion so that those things can happen.,” said Maura Collinsgru, director of policy and advocacy for New Jersey Citizen Action.

The Senate has not held hearings on ballot design, and party leaders in that chamber have largely remained silent on the work being done in the lower chamber. Wimberly signaled the Senate has not stayed uninvolved in the process.

“I think the Senate has listened in carefully. I think they will address it,” he said.