2020 lawsuit targeting county-line ballots appears to near settlement talks

The judge overseeing a challenge to New Jersey's county-line ballots requested proposed settlement terms last week, signaling a resolution after four years of pretrial proceedings. (Daniella Heminghaus for New Jersey Monitor)

A lawsuit targeting New Jersey’s unique system of county-line ballots that has languished in pretrial proceedings for more than four years appears to be approaching settlement talks.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni last week asked attorneys for plaintiff Christine Conforti and other former congressional candidates to relay information on their proposed settlement, adding the court would “assess the format for efficient settlement discussions.”

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon, one of the defendants in the case, confirmed to the New Jersey Monitor that she is interested in settling.

“And we have made that clear to the plaintiffs because, number one, we can’t go into another election cycle — which is coming up before you know it — with the uncertainty,” Hanlon said.

The suit, lodged in July 2020 after Conforti lost a Democratic primary for the 4th District House seat, seeks to end New Jersey’s system of county lines, a unique ballot design that groups candidates by slogan rather than by office sought. The disputed design allows party-backed candidates to appear in a single line — a row or column — on ballots, and it has been criticized as one that hands party insiders and their preferred candidates a nearly insurmountable advantage at the polls.

Brett Pugach, who is among the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, declined to comment on settlement discussions but said his clients are willing to explore “any means necessary to secure a just resolution of the constitutional concerns raised” by the suit.

“I can say that Plaintiffs strongly believe that the writing is on the wall in this case, and county clerks that continue to defend the county line do so with complete disregard for taxpayer money,” he said.

Pugach noted that U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi has found that plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit challenging county-line ballots were likely to succeed in their push to have them declared unconstitutional. Quraishi in March issued a preliminary injunction barring the use of the ballots in June’s Democratic primary, a ruling upheld by a federal appellate panel .

In that case, the plaintiffs, including Rep. Andy Kim (D-03), argued that county-line ballots violate associational freedoms granted by the First Amendment and other protections afforded by the elections clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Conforti’s suit, argued by the same attorneys in the Kim case, likewise claims the practice unconstitutionally impedes associational freedoms because candidates who do not bracket with office seekers at the top of a ticket cannot secure the top-ballot position in some counties.

County clerks named as defendants in both suits had mostly opposed them on procedural grounds, charging the cases were untimely and, in Kim’s case, would create chaos as election officials scrambled to design new ballots in time to meet election deadlines. When Kim filed his suit, he was one of multiple candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate (he subsequently won the party’s nod ).

The clerks’ fears about electoral chaos proved to be unfounded. After Quraishi issued his order, they printed ballots that had no county line and were used in June’s Democratic primaries without incident.

Much about the future of the Conforti case remains unclear , and the sheer number of parties involved could complicate settlement talks or leave the case ongoing even after claims against some parties are resolved .

Conforti’s suit includes more than 25 parties, including two county party committees. Hanlon said there was a suggestion the plaintiffs sought only to settle with Burlington County, but Pugach indicated that is not the case.

“We want this issue to be fixed across the state, and so it kind of doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to think that we’re only interested in resolving with some parties and not with others,” Pugach said.

There’s no indication Kim’s case is moving toward settlement, though an agreement in the Conforti matter could make that case moot.

It’s also unclear how unanimous clerks are in wanting to end the case through settlement.

“I don’t want to speak for the others. I would say the clerks, generally speaking, will follow the law that is set forth by the court or the Legislature because that’s what we do. We have to rely on the law to prepare the ballots,” Hanlon said.

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