GGCNJ Resolution to Establish a Fair Ballot

Whereas the majority of Democratic and Republican Party primary voters in New Jersey vote using ballots organized around a so-called “county line,” an entire column or row of party-endorsed candidates (Figure 1);

Whereas party-endorsed candidates benefit from appearing on the “county line” alongside better-known candidates, such as those running for President, U.S. Senator, or Governor and are further advantaged because the “county line” typically occupies one of the initial columns or rows on the ballot, while candidates not on the “county line” are disadvantaged by being placed in other columns or rows, sometimes located far away from the county line candidates, and grouped haphazardly and arbitrarily, thereby denying challengers and new voices a fair chance at being elected;

Whereas a Rutgers University professor found that the consequences of the “county line” in advantaging some candidates over others are large and measurable, including providing party-endorsed candidates for Congress with a 38 percentage-point average advantage over the last twenty years and contributing to the fact that no legislative incumbent on the “county line” has lost a primary election in New Jersey over the last 14 years while nationally, 1,145 legislative incumbents lost a primary during that time. 

Whereas this “county line” ballot design makes it challenging for voters to determine which candidates are running for which office and encourages voters to choose the candidates on the “county line” — the easy-to-find and visually consistent option;

Whereas the “county line” ballot design confuses voters, resulting in overvotes and undervotes, for example, during the 2020 New Jersey primary election, voter confusion caused by the “county line” ballots resulted in 32.4% of all Mercer County Democratic voters in the 4th Congressional District having their votes disqualified because they selected two Congressional candidates, and 19% of all Atlantic County Democratic voters not voting for any US Senate candidate;

Whereas multiple studies conducted by researchers at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice have found that ballot design impacts voting behavior and election outcomes;

Whereas the advantages provided by the “county line” disproportionately empower a small group of party insiders who decide which candidates appear on the line, making candidates and elected representatives beholden to these party insiders rather than accountable to voters;

Whereas New Jersey is the only state that uses a “county line” primary ballot design, while in every other state and in Washington, DC, primary ballots are organized by the electoral position being sought, with candidates listed beneath or to the right of each position (see Figure 2 below);

Whereas sixteen states also rotate the order that candidates appear on the primary ballot, so that none of the candidates disproportionately benefit from their position on the ballot; and

Whereas this ballot structure weakens the democratic process in the state of New Jersey;

now therefore, be it resolved, that the undersigned recognizes the need for primary election ballot reform that promotes fairness and minimizes confusion among voters, and supports the following revisions to New Jersey’s primary election ballot system:

1. “Office Bloc Display”: require primary election ballots of all kinds (machine, paper, vote-by-mail, provisional, emergency, etc.) in all counties to be displayed in “office bloc” format whereby each office listed is immediately followed by the candidates running for that office, and is listed separately from any other office.
2. Rotational Order System: require the county clerks to adopt a system for determining the order in which candidate names will be placed on the ballot, so that, to the greatest extent possible, all candidates running for the same office will receive the first and subsequent ballot positions in an equal number of election districts and no candidate will be advantaged over other candidates on the basis of their ballot placement.

Signatories (alphabetical order; updated periodically):

Statewide organizations:
Action Together New Jersey (ATNJ)
Citizens Advocating for Safe Elections (CASE)
Clean Water Action
Coalition for Peace Action
Fair Ballot Project
Food & Water Watch
Force the Issue NJ
League of Women Voters of New Jersey (LWVNJ)
March for Our Lives New Jersey
New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ)
New Jersey Policy Perspectives
NJ Citizen Action
NJ Working Families
OPRAmachine
Our Revolution New Jersey
Project 555: Youth Voter Engagement
Represent.Us/New Jersey
Save Our Schools NJ

Local organizations:
Central Jersey DSA (Democratic Socialists of America)
Central Jersey Progressive Democrats 
Citizens For Ethical Morristown Inc
coLAB Arts
Collingswood Democratic Committee
Cooper River Indivisible
Cranbury Democratic Committee
Democratic Club of Long Beach Island
Democracy Task Force at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County
Franklin Lakes Democrats
Glen Rock After The March
Glen Rock Democratic Committee
Harrison Township Democratic Committee
Huddle by the Sea
Hudson County Progressive Alliance
Indivisible Bayshore
Indivisible Central NJ
Indivisible Cranbury
Indivisible Monroe Township
Indivisible NJ 3rd District
Indivisible NJ5
JOLT USA
Lawrence Citizen Activists
League of Women Voters of Fair Lawn
League of Women Voters – Northern Valley
League of Women Voters of Teaneck
Mercer County Democratic Progressive Caucus
Merchantville Democratic Committee
Monmouth County Democratic Progressive Caucus
Neptune Progressives
NJ-08 For Progress
NJ 11th For Change
Not in Our Town Princeton
Occupy Bergen County
Ocean Grove United
Our Revolution Essex County
Our Revolution Middlesex County
Our Revolution Monmouth
Our Revolution Trenton Mercer
People Demanding Action NJ
Pennington Democratic Municipal Committee
Piscataway Progressive Democratic Organization
Plainfield Republican City Committee
Princeton Community Democratic Organization
Princeton University Graduate Student Government Assembly
Queen City Pride, Plainfield NJ
Robbinsville Democratic Club
RUProgressive (Rutgers University Progressives)
Social Justice Committee of Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County
SOMA Action
STAND Central NJ
Summit Area Indivisible
Summit Marches On
Sunrise Hunterdon County
Sunrise Morris County
Sunrise Union County
Union County NOW
Westfield 20/20
Wind of the Spirit

Candidates for office/Elected representatives (by last name alphabetical):
Joseph Bouvier, Elected Member of Merchantville Borough Democratic Committee
Mary Ciuffitelli, Candidate for Hudson County Democratic Committee
Lauren Dayton, Councilwoman for Borough of Tenafly, NJ
Catherine Gural, Montgomery Democratic Township Committee Member
Mitch Kulberg, Chair, Tinton Falls Democratic Municipal Committee
Mico Lucide for Atlantic County Clerk – Democrat
William H. Michelson, State Senate LD 22 Candidate – Republican
Allen Swanson, Democratic Candidate for New Providence Borough Council
Faris Zwirahn, LD16 NJ Assembly Candidate – Democrat