N.J. ballot law ‘meets constitutional muster,’ lawmaker says after judge questions its legality

Supporters of a new law that ended New Jersey’s controversial county-line ballot system signaled there is no rush to amend the statute, even after a federal judge warned this week that the law may be unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi in a Tuesday order said some balloting practices that were challenged in court last year likely remain unconstitutional despite changes signed into law this March, but Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) said he thinks the law, which he sponsored, “meets constitutional muster.”

“Ballot design has always been in the purview of the Legislature, but I’m aware of what he said,” Scutari said.

Scutari added that he had not read the order but had heard some of the judge’s concerns through other mediums.

It’s unclear what effect Quraishi’s order will have on future elections. There are primaries on Tuesday — gubernatorial and Assembly candidates are on the ballot — but it’s too soon to change ballots before then.

The new law was spurred by a lawsuit filed in February 2024 by now-Sen. Andy Kim and two other congressional candidates. The three Democrats alleged that the state’s county-line ballot system — which groups party-backed candidates on the ballot no matter what office they’re seeking — is unconstitutional.

In March 2024, Quraishi ruled that Kim’s lawsuit was likely to succeed on its merits, and he barred county clerks from using county-line ballots in the June 2024 primary. Instead, he ordered them to use office-block ballots, which group candidates by the office they’re seeking.

The Legislature then acted. Earlier this year, it passed the new ballot law, which revamped the design of primary ballots largely to conform to Quraishi’s March 2024 edict. But the judge, in his new order, noted that the law permits candidates to bracket with one another on the ballot and have their ballot positions determined by a single draw instead of individual draws.

Those provisions, he wrote, “likely do not remove the unconstitutional practices alleged.”

Quraishi’s March 2024 order barred clerks from conducting ballot draws that “do not include a separate drawing for every office and candidate” and required ballot draws offer each candidate an equal chance of securing the best ballot position.

The Kim lawsuit alleged  Jersey’s bracketing system — which allowed candidates to have their ballot positions drawn as a group if they shared a slogan, as did candidates backed by party leaders — violated other candidates’ associational rights by requiring they bracket with others to avoid being disadvantaged by the ballot itself.

Under prior law, ballot draws for candidates for high office could determine placements for those seeking other offices, from the state to local level.

The new law allows candidates seeking the same office, like two running mates for a single Assembly district, to have their ballot positions drawn as a group. Quraishi said this week that leaving ballot draws to clerks’ discretion could harm candidates in the future.

One of the law’s sponsors said the Legislature would act if Quraishi orders further changes.

“The ballot design legislation was written with unprecedented public input and reviewed by counsel from the Office of Legislative Services, as is the case with any law. If there is a legal challenge and a court determines we need to address something, I’m sure the legislature will,” said Assemblyman Al Barlas (R-Essex), who co-chaired an Assembly panel convened to consider new ballot design.

As the new law was being contemplated, numerous witnesses urged legislators to require randomized electronic ballot draws and rotating candidate ballot positions to ensure each appeared in the first position as often as their opponents and warned that bracketing provisions could disadvantage solo candidates.

Quraishi’s concerns haven’t spawned wide-reaching worry among the state’s most prominent politicians.

“They put the people who are running together together. I don’t have a great passion about that one way or the other, but the ballot worked for me,” Gov. Phil Murphy told reporters Thursday. “It was dead straight forward, dead easy.”